Bloody bloodsuckers!
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/fit-to-post-technology/pore-telcos-may-revise-pricing-3g-packages-073953723.html
Some smartphone users in Singapore may see themselves
paying more for data usage, as all mobile phone service providers
here intend to review their existing 3G packages and may revise
charges to deter massive usage by users, according to a report by
investment firm Kim Eng.
The report, released on Monday, cited plans by local
telcos to reduce generous data caps, scrap the current unlimited
data option in 3G packages, and roll out more usage-based plans in
the future.
The review comes after the ever-increasing adoption of
instant messaging platforms and Voice over IP (VoIP) applications
such as WhatsApp and Viber. Such tools allow mobile users to send
text messages and make phone calls for free, thus eroding the need
to pay for costly voice calls or SMS, the report noted.
A spokesperson for StarHub confirmed with Yahoo!
Singapore that the company is indeed working on reviewing the price
scheme for its data packages and may consider rolling out
usage-based data pricing.
"We are reviewing current pricing plans and consider
introducing usage-based data pricing to ensure optimal network
quality for our customers," said Chan Kin Hung, StarHub's head of
products and solutions.
"In addition, we will not offer unlimited mobile
broadband plan on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) platform when we
launch our LTE service, which is likely to take place in the second
half of 2012," he added.
The revised charges, if skewed towards a pay-per-usage
basis, will hit hard customers who use a lot of data on a frequent
basis. However, customers may see an improvement in network
quality.
StarHub is the only telco here that offers the
unlimited data option to its customers, while packages by SingTel
and M1 have a data cap of up to 50GB.
In 2009, M1 increased the data credit on its iPhone
plans from 10GB to 12GB a month. At that time, both StarHub and
SingTel were offering customers data packages with low data caps --
1GB and 500MB respectively, according to iMerlion.
