StarHub

StarHub Limited

Type	Public (SGX: CC3)
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	7 May 1998
Headquarters	Singapore StarHub Green
Key people	Tan Guong Ching (Chairman) Tan Tong Hai (CEO)
Products	Digital TV Cable television IPTV Broadband Internet Telephone Mobile
Revenue	$2.42 billion SGD (2012)
Employees	Approximately 3,000
Website	StarHub.com

StarHub Limited is a full-fledged telecommunications company providing a full range of services over mobile, internet and fixed platforms in Singapore.

History

StarHub was awarded the licence to provide fixed network and mobile services on 7 May 1998, when the government announced that telecommunications sector in Singapore would be completely liberalised by 2002. In 2000, the government announced that the date for complete liberalisation would be brought forward to 2000, and the 49% cap on foreign ownership of public telecommunications companies in Singapore would be lifted.^[1] StarHub was officially launched in April 2000 with ST Telemedia, Singapore Power, BT Group and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) as its major shareholders.

In January 1999, StarHub acquired internet service provider CyberWay and it became a subsidiary within the StarHub group. It was renamed as StarHub Internet on 3 December 1999 in a move to integrate CyberWay into the StarHub brand.

In 2001, Singapore Power divested its shares in StarHub and sold its 25.5% stake to ST Telemedia for S$400 million. BT Group subsequently divested its 18% stake as a result of consolidation, after accumulating debt acquired during the bidding round for 3G licenses in the United Kingdom.

In 2002, the company merged with Singapore's sole cable television operator, Singapore Cable Vision. As a result of the merger, it acquired SCV's cable television as well as broadband internet access operations.

StarHub was publicly listed on the Singapore Exchange in October 2004, and a new wholly owned subsidiary known as StarHub Online was formed in 2005 to provide broadband internet services.

On 12 January 2007, Qatar Telecom acquired a quarter of ST Telemedia's shares in StarHub.^[2]

On 1 May 2009, the Infocommunications Development Authority of Singapore announced that StarHub's wholly owned subsidiary, Nucleus Connect, was selected as the Operating Company (OpCo) to design, build and operate the active infrastructure of the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network.^[3]

On 14 July 2009, StarHub announced the retirement of long-standing chief executive Terry Clontz.^[4] Neil Montefiore, the former chief executive of the country's smallest telecommunications company M1 Limited, took over as chief executive on 1 January 2010. Terry Clontz remains as a non-executive director of StarHub.

On 1 August 2009, StarHub relocated its corporate office to StarHub Green building at Ubi from its previous office location at StarHub building at Cuppage.^[5]

On 7 February 2013, StarHub announced the retirement of Neil Montefiore as Chief Executive Officer by end February 2013. StarHub's Chief Operating Officer Tan Tong Hai was appointed CEO on 1 March 2013.^[6]

Subsidiaries

The StarHub group consists of several subsidiaries,^[7] which include:

Services

Mobile services

StarHub provides mobile services through its subsidiary StarHub Mobile. Since its launch in April 2000, StarHub has been Singapore's fastest growing mobile operator. It has close to two million customers and is the second largest mobile network operator with close to 30% market share.^[8]

On 27 May 2003, it became the first mobile operator in Singapore to commercially launch BlackBerry, a hand-held wireless device providing e-mail, telephone, text messaging, web browsing and other wireless data access.^[9] Customers trials of 3G services began in November 2004, and was launched in April 2005.

In January 2005, StarHub announced that it would form an exclusive strategic partnership for i-mode in Singapore with NTT DoCoMo, a subsidiary of StarHub's major shareholder NTT. Customer trials started in October 2005, and the service was launched on 18 November.

On 15 July 2009, StarHub became the first mobile operator in the Asia Pacific region to commercially launch a HSPA+ service.^[10] Branded as MaxMobile Elite, StarHub's HSPA+ service offers download speeds up to 21 Mbit/s nationwide.^[11]

On 19 September 2012, StarHub began the enhancement of its high-speed mobile broadband network with Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Dual Cell High-Speed Packet Access Plus (DC-HSPA+), which improved peak downlink speeds of up to 75 Mbit/s and 42 Mbit/s respectively.^[12]

On 7 March 2013, StarHub became the first telecommunications company in Singapore to offer High Definition (HD) Voice. The technology enhances the mobile call experience by improving speech clarity and reducing background noise.^[13]

Pay TV

StarHub provides cable television services through its subsidiary StarHub Cable Vision, and it is the sole cable television operator in Singapore. Its Hybrid Optical Fibre-Coaxial network reaches 99% of households in Singapore, with 536,000 households subscribing to its cable television services.

In November 2004, it announced the launch of digital cable services over its cable network, which added more channels and allowed greater consumer interactivity.

On 18 January 2007, StarHub became the first operator in Southeast Asia to offer a commercial high definition television service.^[14]

On 7 June 2012, StarHub launched TV Anywhere, a multi-platform service which allows subscribers to watch TV channels and on-demand content on their personal devices such as laptops and tablets.^[15]

On 18 March 2013, StarHub started offering commercial customers StarHub TV on Fibre, its Internet Protocol television (IPTV) service. The new service will offer businesses high-definition content and over three times as many TV channels as its Digital Terrestrial Television (DTTV) platform.^[16]

Internet services

StarHub provides dial-up and broadband internet access through its subsidiaries StarHub Internet and StarHub Online respectively. StarHub Internet was formed after the acquisition of internet access provider CyberWay, while StarHub Online was formed after a merger with Singapore Cable Vision.

On 3 December 1999, a free surf plan was announced in conjunction with the rebranding of CyberWay, a first in Singapore's consumer internet industry. Customers could surf the internet for free via dial-up and pay only normal local telephone charges. Over 180,000 people signed up for the free surf plan in less than three months since it was announced.^[17]

StarHub provides broadband internet access on the same network it uses for cable television services using cable modems based on the DOCSIS standard.

StarHub chairs the global Wireless Broadband Alliance and provides wireless broadband services at numerous locations throughout Singapore. In November 2004, it announced an agreement with Connexion by Boeing which provide StarHub customers the ability to access the internet and digital content in flight.

On 28 December 2006, StarHub became the first operator in the world to commercially launch a 100 Mbit/s (100,000 kbit/s) residential broadband service nation-wide.^[18] Known as MaxOnline Ultimate, it is one of three cable broadband services offered by StarHub, the other two being MaxOnline Express and MaxOnline Premium.

StarHub also launches 100 Mbit/s, 150 Mbit/s, 200 Mbit/s and 1000 Mbit/s residential fibre broadband service on April 2010. It is known as MaxInfinity Ultimate, MaxInfinity Elite, MaxInfinity Supreme and MaxInfinity Platinum.

Fixed network services

StarHub’s fixed network, built since inception, extends more than 2,000 km (1,200 mi) around Singapore and directly connects more than 800 commercial buildings. It provides a wide range of fixed network services, broadly categorised as data services and Internet Protocol and Voice services.

Data services include:

• Asynchronous Transfer Mode service
• Domestic Leased Circuit
• Facilities Management
• Frame Relay
• international Private Leased Circuit

Internet protocol services include:

• Corporate Dialup and ADSL via access to DSLAMs located in office buildings
• Dedicated Leased lines
• Global internet protocol network
• global Virtual Private Network
• metropolitan Ethernet services
• Internet Protocol Transit/Backbone services
• Managed Security Services
• Hosting Services
• Co-location Service

Controversies

BitTorrent traffic blocking

Between March 18, 2008 to 27 January 2009, StarHub, along with Comcast and Cox Communications, was found to have blocked BitTorrent traffic,^[19] according to a survey conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems using the Glasnost utility involving approximately 100,000 people from various geographic locations. The survey shows what appears to be a large reduction in BitTorrent speeds, compared to a control transfer rate set by a TCP/IP transfer.

References