Singapore Telecom poised to offer free Internet access to 1.82 million phone subscribers

Dec 12, 1999

A FREE-FOR-ALL OF EPIC PROPORTIONS has erupted as the dawn of the new millennium looms. (Sorry, couldn't resist the melodrama.) Hot on the heels of NASDAQ-listed Pacific Internet who vaguely teased subscribers with promises to pay them to surf, Singapore Telecom and Singnet have just announced late this evening they would be offering free Internet access with e-mail to ALL 1.82 million of SingTel's fixed telephone line customers from January next year. If you are a residential line subscriber, you won't have to sign up; you have already been pre-approved by SingTel. That's how intent it is on preserving its monopoly beyond April 2000.

Channel NewsAsia quoted Singapore Telecom as saying "the free Internet service will accelerate the pace of Internet penetration and considerably raise awareness of its benefits." And we're supposed to believe the timing was pure coincidence?

That's right folks — who should we all owe this sudden turn of events to but StarHub Internet, the defiant upstart who dared to rock the boat by suggesting surfers shouldn't have to pay if their eyeballs are being leveraged by ISPs to attract advertisers' dollars.

Should the Singnet or Pacnet dissidents among you now flock back home? Well, consider this: would either have come up with such bold and ground-breaking initiatives had StarHub not entered the scene? And if StarHub's offer had been as suicidal as might have been thought, why would the other two have responded so swiftly and with such abandon, instead of just sitting back while watching StarHub slowly haemorrhage? Someone's slip is showing, it seems.

So clearly, free Internet access was an option which both Singnet and Pacnet chose to have us believe was not. And now, in just a little over a week, StarHub by proving otherwise has chalked up close to 100,000 subscribers and shaken its competitors out of their complacency.

The level of service of StarHub aside — and it has been much better than those Pacnet "scare ads" would like us to believe and puts SingTel Magix to shame — the other two ISPs have had their day. Unfortunately, the latest offers are a lame reaction that came a little too late. (And I'll explain why in a couple of days.)

Remember, it's StarHub you have to thank for all this.

More reports:
SingTel offers free Internet access to fixed telephone line customers — Channel NewsAsia
SingTel counter-offers with free email and Net access — CNET Singapore SingNet offers free surfing and e-mail — Straits Times

Star(Hub) Wars?

Updated Dec 7, 1999

LATEST: SingNet, PacNet to offer 'better' deals, reports the Straits Times today. Question is, WHY ONLY NOW? Have we been overcharged for services all this while?

I say "Keep Our Parks Free." Even if it means perks-free.

STARHUB INTERNET's bold and inventive "public parks" ad campaign, now into its third day, has already roused rival Pacific Internet from a "wait and see" mode to one of denial, it seems. PacNet has dismissed StarHub's "Surf For Free" offer as something too good to be true in a letter to its subscribers, citing a short list of online articles to support its case.

Meanwhile, word has it that a revised Magix Access Client will be released some time in the next few days that may fix some bugs along with the dreaded Magix Freeze. Stay tuned...

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