 |
INTERVIEW:
Kang Aik Siang, |
Judith Berck, Editor, GSM Data Today, October 7, 1998.
SingTel Mobile is working with Ericsson to launch High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) in early 1999. This would make SingTel among the first operators in the world to break the 9.6Kbps data transmission speed barrier.
SingTel Mobile is leading the way among cellular operators with pioneering work in "second generation plus" higher speed and higher capacity technologies including HSCSD and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). SingTel is also involved in W-CDMA trials with Japan's NTT DoCoMo. SingTel hopes to make Singapore a regional hub for the latest digital cellular technologies. SingTel Mobile is a subsidiary of Singapore Telecom.
Kang Aik Siang, SingTel Mobile’s Director of Engineering Planning, was interviewed in Singapore. He spoke with GSM Data Today about these exciting developments.
GDT: First, I’d like to ask about SingTel’s current experiences with data services. What is the data penetration like today in Singapore?
KAS: In Singapore, the penetration of data in cellular market is probably not more than one percent at the moment.
GDT: Is SingTel Mobile currently marketing data services?
KAS: Yes. In fact we started marketing it almost two years ago. We call it the "Mobile Office". We have integrated mobile fax and mobile data as well as short message service into one service offer to customers. It’s a monthly charge, with an air-time tariff similar to the voice tariff.
GDT: Do you provide support to people who have problems when they are trying to connect their cellular phone and their laptop?
KAS: Internally we have a customer service team who helps to address some of the customers’ problems. We also have some arrangements with the dealers who are selling the data terminals, and we are trying to expand to other channels who are more inclined in the computer area. Sometimes the problems are not just the terminals, but the applications - how they actually work with the terminals.
GDT: How does Singapore’s wireless cellular industry fit into the context of Asia Pacific region?
KAS: Basically if you look at Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan and even Korea, these are the areas where the growth is much higher compared to the rest of the Asia Pacific region, both in terms of the growth rates and as far as penetration. Unlike in other areas where voice traffic still has plenty room for growth, we need to look for other sources of revenues for our future growth. We have to bring in more value-added services, especially data services that can provide alternative sources of revenue.
GDT: SingTel Mobile is working with Ericsson to launch HSCSD next year. This would make SingTel among the first operators in the world to offer this service. What is the significance of HSCSD from SingTel’s viewpoint?
KAS: At this moment, in terms of data services, the traffic in proportion to voice is still quite low. A lot of users are not satisfied with the speed compared to landline. A lot of users feel that it needs to be at least two or three times higher in order for them to really want to use the data services. HSCSD would initially quadruple the speed.
We feel that to support this faster new service, in terms of investment it’s actually minimal, because we do not need to set up a totally new network. So we made a decision to implement it to serve our customers better and allow us to achieve a higher penetration of data users.
GDT: How high of a speed are you expecting from HSCSD?
KAS: I believe that initially the terminals may support up to 38.4 kbps, but I believe in one or two years later it will go higher than 56 kbps.
GDT: When do you think you might see the initial 38.4 Kbps speed implemented?
KAS: It should be early next year. I’ve been talking to suppliers and everybody’s already gearing up and getting their prototypes rolled out, so we should be able to do some testing early next year. Probably some commercial service should be ready by middle next year.
GDT: What about handsets?
KAS: At this moment there are no commercial phones yet, so we are trying to test out the prototype phones to give the head start to the suppliers to get start their development and production earlier. I guess it’s a chicken-egg situation. You ask suppliers for a commercial phone, but if they don’t have any network to test, then the rollout of the terminals will be much slower. So we are working jointly with the suppliers so that both of us can have a win-win situation, and have the service available to the customer in the shortest possible time.
GDT: When do you expect the actual public launch to be?
KAS: I would expect around early next year or at the worst the middle of next year. The ball is in the court of the suppliers of the terminals - how fast they can roll these out commercially and set a price that is going to be affordable to the market.
We are also evaluating GPRS now. We see that GPRS has a future, and has different market segments than HSCSD. HSCSD is suitable for applications and features which require huge amount of data to be transmitted like file transfer and like video conferencing, which is something that GPRS might not be able to support. GPRS will be more for general users who just want to use data services for bursty applications like surfing the net. So there will be different market segments.
We would most probably be rolling out both services for different users. Based on the specifications, the terminals are able to support both, so the customer might be able to use one application on GPRS and another application on HSCSD, so that they can achieve the best of both worlds.
GDT: What kind of data penetration rate are you hoping to see, let’s say, one year from now?
KAS: I think one year will still be a bit aggressive to have a higher projection. But by the year 2000 we expect probably to achieve five percent.
GDT: SingTel is also involved with Wideband CDMA (third generation technology) trials. Can you describe what you are doing with the trials?
KAS: The trials are collaboration between NTT DoCoMo, SingTel Mobile, and CWC (NUS) . We are going to bring in a Wideband CDMA system, with three base stations. They’ll be installed in Singapore in the central business district areas. It will be in fact quite similar to the system already installed in Japan. Jointly we’ll be doing experiments on some of the applications, and CWC will be doing some research and development as well. We are also encouraging other parties including research companies and suppliers who would like to use this experiment to do design and development work here in Singapore.
GDT: What are the objectives of the trials?
KAS: There are few objectives from different perspectives. The overall objective is to learn more about Wideband CDMA and understand the applications in the Singapore environment. And to create industry awareness so that there’ll be early startup for R&D. Because if you look at the applications for data, there needs to be a lot of work done in developing both the software and the hardware to bring it to a cost level that is affordable to the consumers. So, if we intend to roll this out in the year 2002 or 2003, a lot of companies really have to start doing something now. We would like to provide this test bed to help these companies advance the technology in Singapore.
GDT: Can you talk more about the applications? What are they going to look like for end users under Wideband CDMA?
KAS: Wideband CDMA eventually would provide speeds up to 384 Kbps and even up to two 2 Mbps. For this kind of speed, you need applications that are basically time-sensitive. This could include services like real-time video conferencing or data conferencing, and applications involving multimedia.
Also, here in Singapore we have the Singapore-One network, which is a very high speed fixed network for multimedia available for business users and home users with an ADSL modem [providing potential speeds of up to 5.5 Mbps]. SingTel’s Magix service on the network offers streaming video, movies, fast Internet applications, games, shopping and more. Part of our experiment with W-CDMA will assess its capability to see whether mobile users could connect to the Singapore-One network, and to really understand the use of Singapore-One in a mobile environment. That would help the Singapore-One network to be more successful, which we hope eventually serve as a platform where we could actually access and perform all of our activities in the future.
One of Singapore’s objectives is to make Singapore into a hub for finance, electronic commerce and IT. The platform will facilitate telecommunication for the local as well as overseas business community and enhance our status as the hub of the region.
GDT: What challenges do you face with the Wideband CDMA trials?
KAS: I do not foresee many technical challenges because it is something that has been proven working. But there are a few other challenges. The cost of doing it is actually quite expensive. But it is something worth doing because it will give us a lot of advantages - not just to Singtel Mobile, but to the industry as a whole. Partly we would be encouraging people to make use of this experiment to start on some research or development work, so that by the time that we are able to make it commercially available, there would be terminals in the market at an affordable price.
GDT: Who are the terminal-side partners for the Wideband CDMA trials?
KAS: They are basically not here in Singapore yet, but in Japan - we know that Ericsson and Nokia are already there. The experiment here in Singapore will actually allow people who could not go to Japan, to set up their base here in Singapore, or even some local companies here to venture into this area as early as possible.
GDT: Will the technology being trialed be backwards-compatible with the current network?
KAS: The system that is on trial is actually a trial system. So, that by nature will be a different system from the existing network in that sense. But the technology itself, Wideband CDMA, is an accepted technology migration path for the GSM networks. So, in terms of compatibility, we would be able to upgrade our GSM networks into this Wideband CDMA network when the time comes.
GDT: How will the infrastructure for Wideband CDMA differ from the current infrastructure?
KAS: How different would it be? Currently we are not very clear on the actual detailed configuration. But being an evolution from the existing system, it should be similar to current infrastructure, except perhaps with additional nodes for data and multimedia capabilities.
GDT: What do you think is the likelihood of having some kind of a single global 3G standard?
KAS: It is our hope that there will be a global 3G standard. Based on what we are seeing now, there seem to be a different parties developing different 3G standards. We would like to go to a 3G standard that will be the standard all of the other countries are implementing, so that, in terms of benefits to the consumers, they will be able to use their services in most other places. In the event of different standards being adopted, we will try to look for solutions which will allow the 3G standards to interwork with each other
GDT: How are the current financial difficulties that the world is facing impacting SingTel’s plans for data services and 3G technology?
KAS: I think it’s going to speed up the rollout of data services. The economy downturn here has caused growth to slow down. We realize that there is a need to look for alternative sources of revenues much quicker than we would like to at the moment. We feel that if data is going to be the future for revenue growth, we really have to start doing something early – to get more terminals to the market at a cheaper rate, and let people see that they could actually use data in the mobile environment.
© 1998 Intel Corporation. Judith Berck is an employee of Intel corporation.