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17-08-2014, 04:00 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
STRAITS TIMES REPORTER: TELCO PRICES MUST GO UP IF SINGAPOREANS WANT FASTER INTERNET :oIo:
.node-article .field-name-link-line-above-tags{float: right;}.node-article .field-name-ad-box-in-article {float: left;margin: 15px 15px 10px 0;}.node-article .field-tags{clear: both;} Post date:
16 Aug 2014 - 1:03pm
http://therealsingapore.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/xtingwalkingbg.png?itok=R0Ul3eNr (http://therealsingapore.com/sites/default/files/field/image/xtingwalkingbg.png)
A story was published on the Straits Times today claiming that there was no choice but for Telcos here to raise their prices; 'No way but up for mobile plan prices in Singapore', (16 Aug).
The writer, Irene Tham, was defending SingTel's recent announcement that its mobile plans would be increasing in price.
(Full story: SingTel raises prices for mobile plans again with bundled 2GB of Wifi (https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealsingapore.com%2Fcontent%2F singtel-raises-prices-mobile-plans-again-bundled-2gb-wifi&ei=-N7uU9HAJI7t8AWX_4LgAw&usg=AFQjCNEjibalf9YGQ3gwSQTOfd1HnAk3Og&sig2=G47wBx9vA-7ZFSqu4YyNBQ&bvm=bv.73231344,d.dGc))
Ms Tham wrote that following SingTel's decision to raise its prices, other Telcos M1 and StarHub are also likely to increase their prices.
She claimed that Singapore's market was "saturated" and so Telco's were having trouble making more money.
By this, she meant that there are not likely to be any "new" customers as there is already a 150% penetration rate in terms of mobile use.
Practically everyone, even young children have their own mobile phones, some people have more than 1 phone. There are 8.3 million mobile lines connected right now in Singapore for the population of only 5.3 million.
Based on this, Ms Tham claims that the only way to increase profits was to charge more for the use of Telco services to the existing customers.
Overall, the article read as though Singaporeans should just accept constantly increasing mobile charges as "there is no other choice".
What the article completely ignored was that Telcos should be making more money by innovating and finding new ways to cut costs.
It seems impossible for the Telcos in Singapore to claim that they face high costs, as there are only 3 Telcos in Singapore and the largest ones enjoy huge market share.
The actual costs of setting up mobile services to cover the whole of Singapore should be very low compared to other, more spread out countries.
While other countries do have higher populations than Singapore, Telcos there have to deal with the huge costs associated with laying new lines all over the country just to be able to cover their customers. Populations are spread out and so their infrastructure costs are multiple times greater than what Telcos in Singapore face. On top of this, there tend to be more than just 3 mobile companies.
How can it be that Singapore Telcos are facing "high costs"?
It would seem that the Telcos here are not interested in really competing with each other. Probably because they can all enjoy high profits if they just silently agree not to lower their prices to edge out the others.
It is not only the base mobile plans which are seeing price increases, all the Telcos also increased their excess data charges after they started seeing customers using more WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook to communicate with others instead of SMSs and Phone calls like they used to.
Telcos are also hiding their increased costs such as by bundling various items together to make it look like they are offering better value with the increase in price. However there are also hidden fees such as "waived" value-add fees that the company could later decide to cease waiving while you're in your contract.
Instead of local telco companies competeing to take more customers from each other by offering better deals, they seem to just be following each other's actions to raise prices, claiming that it is "inevitable" in the mean time, it is Singaporeans who suffer as there are no alternatives but to pay for the ever increasing charges.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?188067-154th-REPORTER-TELCO-PRICES-MUST-GO-UP-IF-SINGAPOREANS-WANT-FASTER-INTERNET&goto=newpost).
STRAITS TIMES REPORTER: TELCO PRICES MUST GO UP IF SINGAPOREANS WANT FASTER INTERNET :oIo:
.node-article .field-name-link-line-above-tags{float: right;}.node-article .field-name-ad-box-in-article {float: left;margin: 15px 15px 10px 0;}.node-article .field-tags{clear: both;} Post date:
16 Aug 2014 - 1:03pm
http://therealsingapore.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/xtingwalkingbg.png?itok=R0Ul3eNr (http://therealsingapore.com/sites/default/files/field/image/xtingwalkingbg.png)
A story was published on the Straits Times today claiming that there was no choice but for Telcos here to raise their prices; 'No way but up for mobile plan prices in Singapore', (16 Aug).
The writer, Irene Tham, was defending SingTel's recent announcement that its mobile plans would be increasing in price.
(Full story: SingTel raises prices for mobile plans again with bundled 2GB of Wifi (https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealsingapore.com%2Fcontent%2F singtel-raises-prices-mobile-plans-again-bundled-2gb-wifi&ei=-N7uU9HAJI7t8AWX_4LgAw&usg=AFQjCNEjibalf9YGQ3gwSQTOfd1HnAk3Og&sig2=G47wBx9vA-7ZFSqu4YyNBQ&bvm=bv.73231344,d.dGc))
Ms Tham wrote that following SingTel's decision to raise its prices, other Telcos M1 and StarHub are also likely to increase their prices.
She claimed that Singapore's market was "saturated" and so Telco's were having trouble making more money.
By this, she meant that there are not likely to be any "new" customers as there is already a 150% penetration rate in terms of mobile use.
Practically everyone, even young children have their own mobile phones, some people have more than 1 phone. There are 8.3 million mobile lines connected right now in Singapore for the population of only 5.3 million.
Based on this, Ms Tham claims that the only way to increase profits was to charge more for the use of Telco services to the existing customers.
Overall, the article read as though Singaporeans should just accept constantly increasing mobile charges as "there is no other choice".
What the article completely ignored was that Telcos should be making more money by innovating and finding new ways to cut costs.
It seems impossible for the Telcos in Singapore to claim that they face high costs, as there are only 3 Telcos in Singapore and the largest ones enjoy huge market share.
The actual costs of setting up mobile services to cover the whole of Singapore should be very low compared to other, more spread out countries.
While other countries do have higher populations than Singapore, Telcos there have to deal with the huge costs associated with laying new lines all over the country just to be able to cover their customers. Populations are spread out and so their infrastructure costs are multiple times greater than what Telcos in Singapore face. On top of this, there tend to be more than just 3 mobile companies.
How can it be that Singapore Telcos are facing "high costs"?
It would seem that the Telcos here are not interested in really competing with each other. Probably because they can all enjoy high profits if they just silently agree not to lower their prices to edge out the others.
It is not only the base mobile plans which are seeing price increases, all the Telcos also increased their excess data charges after they started seeing customers using more WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook to communicate with others instead of SMSs and Phone calls like they used to.
Telcos are also hiding their increased costs such as by bundling various items together to make it look like they are offering better value with the increase in price. However there are also hidden fees such as "waived" value-add fees that the company could later decide to cease waiving while you're in your contract.
Instead of local telco companies competeing to take more customers from each other by offering better deals, they seem to just be following each other's actions to raise prices, claiming that it is "inevitable" in the mean time, it is Singaporeans who suffer as there are no alternatives but to pay for the ever increasing charges.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?188067-154th-REPORTER-TELCO-PRICES-MUST-GO-UP-IF-SINGAPOREANS-WANT-FASTER-INTERNET&goto=newpost).