DUBLIN – With 144% mobile penetration and 195% household broadband penetration, no one can argue that Singapore isn’t one of the main hubs of the ICT world, and, according to Neil Montefiore, CEO of Starhub, the country has ambitious plans to grow the telecoms sector even further in the near future.
“We have big government-led projects for broadband,” Montefiore told attendees of the TM Forum, noting that the tiny city state aimed to get fiber to every home and every business by 2013.
Since its launch 11 years ago, Starhub has been a major quad play player on the Singaporean market, focusing on corporate fixed line, Pay TV, mobile and broadband.
However, it was just a few years ago when the telecoms revolution really turned the island on its head; in December 2009, the iPhone finally became available to all three of the country’s carriers.
Smartphones now make up 80% of Singapore’s mobile subscribers, with Montefiore noting that 70% of Starhub’s data is consumed by customers using 3G dongles rather than mobile phones.
That doesn’t mean data crunching on devices isn’t becoming a hot topic, though, with Montefiore noting that while the average smartphone user eats their way through around 1 Gigabyte of data per month, newly introduced tablets are using approximately 12 GB a month.
So how to monetize that? With a number of value-added services Starhub hopes to provide and successfully monetize, Monefiore said.
The first important part of Starhub’s extensive plan is tiered pricing, explained Montefiore, who went on to say it was important for customers to be able to choose a pricing level that matches their needs. Those needs could range from basic social networking, to app use, to games, video, music and even watching TV via mobile and tablets.
Then there is the “Home Gateway” offering; Starhub’s cloud service offers customers a way to control almost anything from their mobile phones, from their home air-conditioning to their home security cameras.
Telemedecine, he said, was also becoming a fast-growing sector that Starhub is keen to get in early on, as are games and music portals that could stream to all devices.
Meanwhile, the emerging location-based advertising space also features prominently in the firm’s plans for monetization, although currently just 1.5% of Starhub’s ad revenue comes from LBS. “It has huge potential to grow,” said Montefiore.
While Android has seen spectacular growth throughout the world, Montefiore surprised the audience with news that this wasn’t entirely the case in Singapore, where Android adoption has been notably slower. “The iPhone is still really strong in Singapore,” said Montefiore, adding his hope that Starhub would begin to see stronger growth for Google Inc.’s OS to increase competition.
