StarHub launches i-mode services

Look at the ridiculous data pricing. People don't want pay as you go, they want "all you can eat" We figured that out 20 years ago. The cellcos are terrified that if they do flat rate data, people will start asking for flat rate voice...

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StarHub launches i-mode services

By ANGELA TAN

STARHUB, Singapore's second-biggest phone company, yesterday launched its i-mode service, hoping that the 100 local and foreign content sites, as well as an easy-to-use handset, would entice 50,000 people to sign up over the next 12 months.

'We are targeting 50,000 i-mode users by the end of the first year,' StarHub spokeswoman Jeannie Ong said, repeating a projection made in January.

i-mode is a mobile-Internet platform developed by Japan's NTT DoCoMo which allows users to access the Internet with just one click of a hot button.

StarHub chief executive Terry Clontz said that i-mode is a unique and robust platform that optimises the delivery and presentation of data, images and video from the Web to the handset.

StarHub's i-mode users will also be able to conduct mobile transactions such as booking cinema tickets or doing online banking, and access news from sources like The Business Times and The Straits Times, as well watch Eurosports on their mobile phone.

The telco has tied up with OCBC Bank to provide mobile banking services. OCBC customers will be able to check account balances, transfer funds - and even pay bills.

Subscribers have a choice of three i-mode enabled phones from NEC and Samsung, priced from $368 to $688.

Offered over StarHub's 2.5G and 3G networks, users can choose from three packages. Light users can opt to pay as they use at 1.05 cents per kilobyte; frequent users can pay a promotional rate of $5.25 for $20 of data traffic until April 2006; and heavy users can pay a special rate of $10.50 for the first three months until April 2006.

Besides subscribing for StarHub's data plans, i-mode users may need to subscribe to specific content providers to access their sites.

Chan Kin Hung, StarHub senior vice-president for mobile services, said that the telco shares up to 85 per cent of the subscription revenue with its i-mode content partners.