Singtel to charge for whatsapp and skype?

[Little_prince]

Chua Sock Koong Photo: Bloomberg

Share

SingTel chief executive Sock Koong Chua has urged regulators to give carriers like Optus the right to charge rivals such as WhatsApp and Skype for use of their networks or risk a major decline in network investment.

At the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Ms Chua praised Australia’s regulatory market as one of the few countries in the world to allow a foreign player to have total ownership of a telco provider.

SingTel owns Optus, which is Australia’s second largest provider of telecommunications services. It invested almost $1 billion during financial year 2013 in its fixed-line and mobile networks.

But she warned such investments would be slashed around the world and would not continue unless regulators allowed them to start charging over-the-top rivals such as WhatsApp for using their networks.

WhatsApp was bought by Facebook last week for $US19 billion ($21 billion) and provides free messaging services to its 450 million users. The rise of companies like it have helped cut revenues from phone calls and text messaging at traditional carriers like Optus.

“The main problem we have as an industry is we have been unable to monetise this increased demand . . . and [average revenue per user] has fallen over time,” she said. “I think the pace of change in our industry is relentless so clearly we can’t afford to stand still.

“If we are not careful we could stand the risk of being totally disintermediated.”

She called on regulators to allow carriers to detect and charge OTT players when their services were being provided over the network. While Telstra has experimented with such moves, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission considers it to be anti-competitive.

But Ms Chua said the solution was not to simply levy companies like WhatsApp but to become their partners.

“Our ambition must be to become the preferred network partners of customers and OTT players,” she said. “We must create sustainable revenue models.”

Her comments echoed those of Optus head of networks Vic McClelland who told The Australian Financial Review earlier this year the company was working to provide priority services at a cost for customers wanting better access to streaming video services like YouTube.

 

Time to avoid singtel.

the dumbass woman doesn't seem to understand how the internet works.

might as well start charging for email too....

[Thaiyotakamli]

boycott stingtel

 

dunno why some people still in love with them

 

Time to avoid singtel.

the dumbass woman doesn't seem to understand how the internet works.

might as well start charging for email too....

 

she think she smarter than Zuckerberg, so she charge people use whatsapp

Edited February 26, 2014 by Thaiyotakamli

[Benarsenal]

Ask them go f*** themselves la. Sia suay Singapore only. Typical greedy behaviour.

 

Always hated Singtel. Only use them cos bo pian need Mio to watch sports.

[TVT]

Not to worry. We can always switch to other free platforms like Viper, Line and Wechat.....and continue chatting.

[Trex101]

 

Time to avoid singtel.

the dumbass woman doesn't seem to understand how the internet works.

might as well start charging for email too....

 

 

So Singtel now want to take on Facebook/Whatsapp? dumbass is too kind a word for her...

[Tayspiderx]

Dun forget gahment/gic got interest in singtel, its still possible they follow china n ban Facebook n whatapps if they dun comply

[Trex101]

Dun forget gahment/gic got interest in singtel, its still possible they follow china n ban Facebook n whatapps if they dun comply

 

Don't think our gov are keen to take on USA government by banning Facebook unless they have another political reason like GE 2016. .

[Hydrocarbon]

Time to avoid singtel.

the dumbass woman doesn't seem to understand how the internet works.

might as well start charging for email too....

 

It's not gonna be just Singtel.. Went for a conference / seminar previously, got one of Starlag's (not gonna type the actual name, but obvious enough right?) VP or Director there.. He kept harping on how Starlag innovates to stay with the market, and how though their average user uses less and less SMSes, commercial volume has increase to keep their revenue from that particular stream going upwards.

 

To me and my peers, it seemed like he was just crapping..

 

Turns out next day, papers come out about how they're losing revenue to services like WhatsApp / Line etc and they wanna band together to do their own WhatsApp or something similar.

 

[Bystander50]

Time to avoid singtel.

 

the dumbass woman doesn't seem to understand how the internet works.

 

might as well start charging for email too....

Stinktel's a pest and moving us backwards.

Instead of innovating and finding better ways to boost revenue, they are resorting to these rubbish.

Every form of data goes through their network from email to video streaming ...

 

12gb reduction to 2/3gb is also initiated by them to further increase revenue because they are losing a lot of money.

 

Talk to people in the industry, Stinktel charges are one of the most expensive with no value add.

We hopped over to another provider when the contract was up.

They are desperate now as a number of their sales team joined a certain competitor and persuaded their ex-customers to jump ship.

[Watwheels]

I think what they are saying is to charge the whatsapp and skype developers/operators for using stinktel's and optus's network. Whether the cost will past on to the end user is another issue.

 

Now that whatsapp has a huge mountain backing I think it's a matter of time other networks or carrier will start charging them. No free lunch in this world.

 

I think it's a major concern to them since whatsapp just announced they will be providing calls in addition to sms. With so many ppl using worldwide it will be come stinktel's major rival. Ah boh they will be eating grass soon.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Watwheels

[Astrid]

It's actually a common issue amongst ISPs worldwide, not only SingTel.

What I heard is that some have banded together, to fund R&D on OTT blockers and are seeing some positive results.

If OTT blockers are deemed fit-for-purpose, and implemented in all physical land or cable line networks, the all OTT Apps will either be stopped dead in their tracks (cannot "use wi-fi" to circumvent 3G/4G anymore), or these OTT App proprietors will need to pay some form of throughputting or usage fee to the ISPs, or enter into a JV contract with the ISPs.

The future looks real and clear, as the ISPs are beginning to speak with one voice around the world!

[Kb27]

If you can't beat innovation, you banned or charged them. clap clap for sinktel.

 

So any provider that uses data should charge them also.

 

And that's on top of what customers are paying for data already.

[Astrid]

Let's put the case of the disgruntled ISPs another way ... To see their POV.

 

If you were to have paid millions to live in a condominium and you later observe that many not staying there, but at nearby HDB estates come to your condo to park there, use the pool and other facilities, and then wash themselves up in the common showers ... maybe even the sauna etc. - every evening, and it gets especially congested over weekends.

 

How would you feel - after having paid millions for the exclusivity to live there? Will you let it go ... business as usual?

 

No right. You and the rest of the condo proprietors will do something immediately!

Maybe issue a owner/tenant/occupier card and instruct the security guards to police this unconditionally.

 

Now, aren't the ISPs, Singtel in this case, also doing the same thing to protect their invested assets and business case?

 

I guess it only hurts you most, if it's yours.

[Mustank]

Let's put the case of the disgruntled ISPs another way ... To see their POV.

 

If you were to have paid millions to live in a condominium and you later observe that many not staying there, but at nearby HDB estates come to your condo to park there, use the pool and other facilities, and then wash themselves up in the common showers ... maybe even the sauna etc. - every evening, and it gets especially congested over weekends.

 

How would you feel - after having paid millions for the exclusivity to live there? Will you let it go ... business as usual?

 

No right. You and the rest of the condo proprietors will do something immediately!

Maybe issue a owner/tenant/occupier card and instruct the security guards to police this unconditionally.

 

Now, aren't the ISPs, Singtel in this case, also doing the same thing to protect their invested assets and business case?

 

I guess it only hurts you most, if it's yours.

User pay for bandwidth already

No?

[Toothiewabbit]

If you can't beat innovation, you banned or charged them. clap clap for sinktel.

 

So any provider that uses data should charge them also.

 

And that's on top of what customers are paying for data already.

Singtel could be setting a precedent, an excuse for other telcos. LL lo, suck thumb man.

[Astrid]

Time to avoid singtel.

...

No use one lah. Once they implement, the rest (M1, StarHub) will follow.

So go where?

And once implemented, ALL OTT Apps will be impacted. FaceTime, Line, Viber ... all if them!

So switch to what other?

 

The way I understand how these OTT blockers work is that they monitor the carrier waves within the PHYSICAL land, cable or optic-fiber line. So it won't be selective and any OTT riding on these lines will tiok liak (get caught)!

[Ktglfc]

The best to hurt them is to take over a part of them, like buying their shares.

Ask questions during their AGM, and at the same time, squeeze a bit of their profits by having dividends return to us :)

[Kac]

Another case of Singtel wanting to have their cake and eat it...Like what has been mentioned aboved, consumers are already paying for the bandwidth (which is often slow and unreliable in Singapore context)..