Giving us pseudo-competition is one thing, milking us in the
process is another!
Mellanie Hewlitt
12 Feb 2005
More GLC scams by Sinktel/Starhub
Singapore Review
More GLC atrocities revealed. Both Singtel and Starhub remain
government owned and government controlled entities. If there is
any
competition it is purely an illusion.
It is a fact that the technology for high-speed bandwidth has
been
around for decades. So the nice people at Starhub did not wake-up
one
morning and suddenly discover a way to increase bandwidth to
6.5mbps
using existing connections. Both GLCs already had this
capability
decades back.
Instead of allowing consumers to have the full benefits of true
high
speed internet connectivity, both GLCs incurred added costs to
place
a tap on the connection to physically restrict bandwidth
availability
to consumers. The whole idea was to milk the end user. This
collusion
between both GLCs was worth the effort and costs as they could
create
segments in the market and basically sell the same product for a
much
higher price (at the expense of the end user of cause).
The crucial point here is that in a market where there are bona
fide
independently owned and runned Internet Service Providers
competing
with each other, this kind of collusion and exploitation would
never
have occured. It is only in the incestous world of Singapore's
GLCs
that scams like this can be co-ordinated between two government
owned
and controlled Internet Service Providers. To find out more about
the
incestous world of Singapore's GLCs see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sg_Review/message/1458
But the deception does not end there. What the Govt GLCs do not
tell
you is that you will only get the full benefits of increased
bandwidth (of a 6.5 mbps line) if you are downloading data
from
another 6.5mbps user. Given the dismal content of local
websites
(which are subject to stringent local internet controls) over 90%
of
Singapore surfers rely heavily on overseas websites. And the
majority
of these overseas websites and servers do not have 6.5mbps
bandwidth.
So if you are downloading a file from an overseas source that
is
using a 1.5mbps bandwidth, it does not matter if your own
bandwidth
is 6.5mbps as your download speed is restricted to the bandwidth
of
the source from which you are downloading your data.
Is it morally and ethically right for cash rich Government
Linked
Companies like Singtel and Starhub to exploit the customer in
this
fashion?