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| Type | Public (SGX: T54) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 7 May 1998 |
| Headquarters |  Singapore |
| Key people | Tan Guong Ching, Chairman Terry Clontz, CEO |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Products | Mobile Digital Cable Internet Fixed Network |
| Revenue | ▲ $2.13 billion SGD (2008) |
| Employees | 2702 |
| Website | StarHub Homepage |
StarHub Limited SGX: T54 is a telecommunications company based in Singapore. It is the second largest mobile operator and the sole cable television operator in Singapore. Its top four direct shareholders are STT Communications, Qatar Telecom, NTT Investment Singapore and MediaCorp.
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Subsidiaries
The StarHub group consists of several subsidiaries, which include:
- StarHub Mobile
- StarHub TV
- Digital Cable services
- StarHub Internet
- residential dial-up internet services
- commercial fixed network services
- StarHub Online
- residential broadband internet service via cable
- residential fixed network voice service via cable
History
StarHub was awarded the license 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. With ST Telemedia, Singapore Power, BT Group and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) as its major shareholders, StarHub was officially launched in April 2000.
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.[1]
Starhub is currently a fully fledged telecommunications company providing a full range of services over mobile, internet and fixed platforms.
In a move which surprised most industry watchers, on 14 July 2009, [2] StarHub announced the retirement of long-standing chief executive Terry Clontz. To fill the upcoming void, Singapore's second largest operator is turning to the former helmsman of the country's smallest telco MobileOne - Neil Montefiore.
Mr Montefiore, who left MobileOne only in February this year, will re-emerge as StarHub's CEO exactly a year later. Mr Clontz will relinquish his CEO role in January 2010 but will continue to be a director of the company, StarHub said in a statement.
Mobile services
StarHub provides mobile services through its subsidiary StarHub Mobile. Since its launch in April 2000, StarHub is Singapore's fastest growing mobile operator. It has over a million customers and is the second largest mobile network operator with 30% market share as of June 2005.
In May 2003, it became the first mobile operator in Singapore to commercially launch BlackBerry, a handheld wireless device providing e-mail, telephone, text messaging, web browsing and other wireless data access. 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.
StarHub has the highest mobile broadband network capacity in Singapore, at 14.4 Mbit/s (downlink) and 5.76Mbit/s (uplink) and upgraded of its mobile broadband network to HSPA Plus (HSPA+), following a successful live demonstration of its capability to deliver 21Mbit/s on the downlink on 8 January 2009.
Cable television
StarHub provides cable television services through its subsidiary StarHub Cable Vision, and it is the sole cable television operator in Singapore. Its hybrid fibre-coaxial network reaches 99% of households in Singapore, with 412,000 households subscribing to its cable television services and a penetration rate of 37.4% in 2004. In November 2004, it announced the launch of digital cable services over its cable network, which added more channels and allowed greater consumer interactivity.
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.
Starhub provides broadband internet access on the same network it uses for cable television services using cable modems based on the DOCSIS standard and it currently has 46.2% of the residential broadband market.
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.
As of 31 September 2006, Starhub's MaxOnline services have 308,000 subscribers.
On 28 December 2006, Starhub rolled out its 100 Mbit/s (100,000 kbit/s) residential cable broadband plan, also known as MaxOnline Ultimate plan. This is one of three of its cable broadband plans, the other two being MaxOnline Express and MaxOnline Premium.
StarHub's commitment to customer privacy had also come into question as a result of Odex's actions against file sharing in 2007.
Fixed network services
StarHub’s fixed network, built since inception, extends more than 2,000 km (1,243 miles) 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
BitTorrent traffic blocking
Starhub was found to be blocking BitTorrent traffic, along with Comcast and Cox ISPs[3], according to the survey using the Glasnost utility which involved 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. However, the latest results from the survey show that Starhub seems to have stopped blocking BitTorrent traffic.[4]
See also
References
- ^ "ST Telemedia and Qatar Telecom Form Strategic Alliance to Expand in the Asia-Pacific Region" (press release). 15 January 2007. http://www.sttelemedia.com/content.asp?ContentId=1440.
- ^ "Former MobileOne chief to take the reins at StarHub" (press release). 14 July 2009. http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,341796,00.html?.
- ^ "Glasnost: Results from tests for BitTorrent traffic blocking". StarHub. http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/results/#detail_block. Retrieved May 21 2009.
- ^ "Glasnost: Results from tests for BitTorrent traffic blocking". StarHub. http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/results/#evol_block. Retrieved May 21 2009.
- "Singapore to fling telecom market wide open". Asian Economic News. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2000_Jan_24/ai_59133418. Retrieved June 26 2005.
- "StarHub Annual Report 2004". StarHub. http://www.starhub.com/corporate/investorrelations/index.html. Retrieved June 26 2005.
- "List of facilities-based operator license". Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. http://www.ida.gov.sg/idaweb/pnr/infopage.jsp?infopagecategory=licensing:pnr&versionid=1&infopageid=I1249. Retrieved June 26 2005.
- "StarHub's Internet surf-for-free plan gets overwhelming base of over 180,000 members". StarHub. http://www.starhub.com.sg/newsroom/newsrm_results.asp?id=43. Retrieved August 6 2005.
- "StarHub's New Wholly-Owned Subsidiary". StarHub. http://www.listedcompany.com/ir/starhub/newsroom/newsroom.cgi?action=view_news&id=20&integrate=1. Retrieved August 6 2005.
- "Glasnost: Results from tests for BitTorrent traffic blocking". StarHub. http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/results/. Retrieved May 21 2009.
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