SINGAPORE : SMSs and call-ins during live competitions and
charity shows are on the rise, and that is good news for telecom
operators; after all, data or non-voiced services are becoming a
key revenue generator for them.
So whether Taufik or Sylvester comes up tops, they fully support
the call to vote during the Singapore Idol final showdown on
Wednesday.
The demand for data and non-voice services is on the rise, and it
is not just because more people are sending SMSs or MMSs to their
friends.
There has also been an increase in TV charity shows like NKF and
live competitions such as Singapore Idol, which encourage
SMSs.
So it is no surprise that all three local telcos are busy preparing
for Wednesday's Singapore Idol final.
Voting will take place within a two-hour time period before the
results are tabulated and then announced.
This could pose a potential logistical nightmare for the
telcos.
Patrick Scodeller, chief technical officer at MobileOne, said, "The
key for us is pre-planning. For example tomorrow's show at the
Indoor Stadium, the Idol show, that is a very heavy concentration
of people in the stadium -- about 10,000 or so.
"For us it's an end-to-end planning process. What we will then do
is we will increase the radio capacity in the base stations that
surround the Indoor the Stadium. We will configure those base
stations specifically to carry SMS traffic a lot, lot more of
it."
It doesn't start, or end, there.
All telcos will then have to route all calls and information
through their networks to the tabulating centre.
And they are putting their technical team on standby to help ensure
everything goes smoothly.
"For example tomorrow in the Indoor Stadium there are about over 10
base stations serving that area alone. There is a standby team that
will be in that area. In the control centre its manned 24x7, so
there are people on duty at all time," Mr Scodeller said.
"Tomorrow the operations people will specifically be looking at the
SMS Centre and virtually sort of a hands on maintenance on that to
ensure that nothing goes wrong; and yes, they all have redundancy
-- it's all built in, we try to solve and try to plan for every
contingency."
All that preparation goes to show just how important the telcos
view their data and non-voice services.
SingTel says these services contributed around 19 percent to its
bottom line this year, up 4 percent on year.
M1 says these services contributed around 17 percent to its total
revenue for the first nine months of this year alone.
And for StarHub non-voice services revenue contributed 15.7 percent
of its bottom line, as at 30 September.
With the success of Singapore Idol, the telcos will be looking for
further growth in this area. - CNA
