The trial, commencing Sep. 24, will see 150 selected customers test SingTel's 3G network in Singapore. The one-month service will only be available in the island-state's central business district.
"The trial is one step in the whole process of launching 3G services," said Lim Chuan Poh, SingTel’s executive vice president for its Consumer Business division and CEO of SingTel Mobile. "The feedback from our trial customers will help in improving our 3G service offering ahead of a commercial launch."
SingTel will initially be conducting the exercise using the Sony Ericsson Z1010 handset and the Novatel Wireless Merlin U530 PC card for notebooks.
It will also be rolling out its 3G network in more areas by the end of the year, in order to fulfill the coverage requirements and deadline imposed by Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).
"IDA's direction is that the network coverage has to be full by the end of the year, and that by the end of the year, there needs to be a commercial or trial service available to the general population," said Lim.
For SingTel, commercial availability may have to wait, due to handset shortage and technology issues. The company is looking at conducting wider public trials by year-end, but it would be "more comfortable" launching the 3G service commercially in the first quarter of 2005, said Lim.
To date, the telco has spent S$100 million (US$59 million) deploying its 3G network. Like domestic rivals M1 and StarHub, SingTel will be harnessing wideband-CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology, the flavor of 3G that is likely to be used in most of Asia and Europe. When contacted, both StarHub and M1 said they will be able to meet IDA's requirements, but declined to provide exact dates for commercial rollouts.
SingTel added that it has integrated its 3G network into its existing second-generation GSM infrastructure, rather than deploying a separate network as some operators in other countries have done. This allows SingTel's networks to seamlessly perform 2G and 3G handovers in the middle of phone conversations so users do not experience dropped calls when they move beyond 3G coverage areas, said Lim.
Although he did not reveal how much consumers will have to pay for 3G services when they are launched, he suggested that the tariffs may be comparable to the firm's current pricing strategy.
"Our strategy is basically to not differentiate 3G from the 2G network," he said. "We're not rolling out 3G as a separate standalone product and service. How do you become a 3G customer of SingTel in future? Just buy a 3G phone and convert your SIM card. Your number remains the same, your price plan probably remains the same, but hopefully your usage will be different."
"I hope that your usage will be very different and that it will be skewed towards using 3G services. That's where I make some money from you," he said.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.