DELIVERING A BETTER NETWORK

Our market-leading network underpins our products, services and innovations, so we continued to drive infrastructure upgrades to improve the coverage, reliability and speed of our network in FY 2015. Customers expect uninterrupted coverage – whether indoors, outdoors or commuting – and quality performance to enjoy videos, games and other high-bandwidth applications.

In FY 2014, Singtel became the first telco to launch a nationwide dual-band 150Mbps 4G service. We raised the bar again in FY 2015, becoming the first telco in the region to introduce a 300Mbps 4G service. Powered by state-of-the-art Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced technology, our 300Mbps service delivers an unrivalled experience for consumers as they access rich multimedia content and communications on the move.

To enable customers to take advantage of these increasing speeds, we also launched relevant services such as the world’s first commercial full-featured Voice over LTE (VoLTE) service, in collaboration with Samsung and Ericsson. With our 4G ClearVoice service, calls are connected up to five times faster than conventional mobile calls. The voice quality is also significantly better, with richer and more accurate sound, and noticeably reduced background noise.

BUILDING THE NETWORK OF THE FUTURE

In-building and hard-to-reach areas, such as Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) tunnels, often present coverage issues for mobile operators. We have enhanced 4G coverage in all underground MRT tunnels and stations to offer customers a seamless surfing experience.

To meet the increased demand for data-heavy applications, we enhanced our mobile data offerings with complementary WiFi data usage on Singtel’s premium high-speed WiFi network. Customers who sign up for our new Combo mobile plans receive extra data allowance on our WiFi network, which is five times faster than the speed of public WiFi and is available at crowded locations such as shopping malls and MRT platforms. Singtel WiFi is currently available in 20 MRT platforms and this number will continue to grow in the coming months.

In pursuit of even faster speeds, we have also started our rollout of Tri-band Carrier Aggregation, a technology that combines bandwidth from three of Singtel’s spectrum bands to improve download speeds and improve the quality of video streaming.

Finally, we moved a step closer to making 5G a reality, with the promise of advanced applications such as multi-person video calls. As a member of the global Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) Alliance, Singtel contributed to the recently published NGMN 5G white paper, which defines operator requirements ahead of 5G’s anticipated release in 2020.

We launched a 5G Joint Innovation Programme with Huawei to conduct research into next-generation mobile broadband technologies, and signed a memorandum of understanding with Ericsson to study the future of 5G networks and its applications for both consumers and enterprises.

Singtel and Ericsson are also partnering for Singapore’s first WiFi calling trial this year. This technology will allow our customers to make and receive calls via their home or public WiFi networks, effectively extending the coverage of Singtel’s mobile services. The solution provides seamless call handover between 4G and WiFi, ensuring customers’ calls are uninterrupted.

CREATING INNOVATIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

We differentiate ourselves from competitors with innovative services and outstanding customer experiences. We upgraded the My Singtel app to allow customers to easily perform functions such as topping up their prepaid cards and paying bills.

Our online virtual agent, “Shirley”, was introduced to answer common queries, providing customers with a fast and convenient alternative to calling our hotlines. Since its introduction in November 2014, “Shirley” has replied to more than a quarter million questions from customers, with an accuracy rate of more than 85%.

We launched a new brand promise in January 2015, reiterating our commitment to improve customer experience. As part of this promise, we introduced a series of service improvements. Customers can book their preferred appointment times with Singtel shops via our website and My Singtel app. They can also schedule a call-back at a convenient time from Singtel customer care representatives, eliminating wait times and avoiding missed calls. Customers with service appointments at home or at the office can expect the Singtel installation team to arrive within 30 minutes of their appointment time, the shortest wait time in the market. Delivery options were also enhanced, with convenient 24/7 self-collection points – SingPost POPStations – situated throughout the island.

DEVELOPING NEW-GENERATION MOBILE SERVICES

Singtel continued to introduce new-generation mobile services, ranging from banking to entertainment in FY 2015. We also keep in mind that each customer is different and we must constantly lift our game to meet their diverse needs.

Innovative products such as our Combo plans offer customers WiFi usage in addition to their mobile data bundle. Customers can also customise their own mobile plans with our Easy Mobile plan. They can choose how much talk time, SMS and data allocation they want to purchase from month to month. This gives maximum flexibility and choice to customers.

We ventured further into the area of financial services with new initiatives such as mRemit, a self-serve remittance service that allows customers to use their mobile phones to instantly and securely transfer money to bank accounts in India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

We introduced our award-winning mobile banking and payments app, Dash, in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank. A first-of-its-kind collaboration between a bank and a telco, Dash integrates mobile banking, payments and shopping into one convenient app.

ENTERTAINING OUR CUSTOMERS

Our pay TV service, Singtel TV, plays a vital role in our consumer strategy, complementing our suite of communications and entertainment services for mobile devices, TVs and computers.

We boosted our suite of TV content with more than 20 new channels from partners such as Turner International, TransTV and NBCUniversal, including CNBC, CNN International, Cartoon Network and E! Entertainment. We also added a range of ethnic channels to cater to different races and ethnic communities. Singtel TV is now host to the largest number of high-definition channels in Singapore.

We entrenched our reputation as the ”home of sports”, as the main broadcaster of the Barclays Premier League and key sporting events such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Commonwealth Games, Youth Olympics and Asian Games. All events except the World Cup were made available for free viewing to all Singtel TV customers.

Customers of our World Cup package were able to catch all the games from wherever they were via the Singtel TV GO mobile app. Football fans could watch the matches for free at community centres around the island, and had access to four key matches via the Singtel TV GO mobile app at no charge. To further improve customers’ sports-viewing experience, we continue to trial new technologies such as LTE Broadcast. It will enable us to cost-effectively stream sporting events and other live TV to customers’ mobile devices. Our first LTE Broadcast trial was conducted at the 28th Southeast Asian Games in June 2015.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ These figures include both enterprise and consumer customers.

⁽²⁾ IDA survey on nationwide 4G outdoor service coverage, Jan – Mar 2015.

Case Study:

® Singtel (CRN: 199201624D) All Rights Reserved.