M1 has slashed prices for its 100Mbps fibre broadband plan to an attractive S$39 a month, essentially bringing Singapore’s broadband prices to a new low in years.

The promotion, part of a tie-in with the Comex tech bazaar starting tomorrow at Suntec City, is a good S$20 off the usual S$59-a-month that the telecom operator charges for the benchmark 100Mbps service.

The new low price will attract many users who are not tied to existing ADSL or cable modem plans, The older services are quickly becoming less attractive with their relatively low speeds – and often higher prices – for both uploads and downloads. …

If you’ve been lusting over the smooth, curved Gorilla Glass screen and sleek exterior of the Dell Venue smartphone, it’s here finally. The Android 2.2 smartphone – which feels a bit 2010, to be honest – has hit stores here in Singapore with a recommended retail price of S$738. The phone will also be available through telcos StarHub and M1. …

So, you’re finally getting the fibre optic cable set up at home and seem all ready to hook up to Singapore’s fast lane that promises faster downloads. Then, all of a sudden, questions come up.

How should I run the fibre optic cable at home? How should I set up up my home network? Which service provider should I sign up with?

As a new fibre broadband user who just signed up two weeks ago, I can tell you I have asked all those questions, and there are solutions, sort of, if you know what you want with the new service. …

Post-paid mobile users in Singapore can send donations to help victims of the devastating Japanese earthquake earlier this month by simply sending an SMS with their phones.

All you have to do is send an SMS to 78888, whether you are on SingTel, StarHub or M1, to make S$5, S$10 or S$20 donations to the Singapore Red Cross to aid the cause.

• For a $5 donation, SMS RC5 to 78888
• For a $10 donation, SMS RC10 to 78888
• For a $20 donation, SMS RC20 to 78888

The amount will be reflected in your next monthly bill. This donation drive runs from now until midnight on April 11, 2011. Donations are not tax-deductible and persons below the age of 18 years will require parental or guardian consent before making a donation.

Do support this donation drive, as aid for the country has been a little slow to come through.

After years of talking about it, Singapore’s number three telco finally joined the market for pay-TV services on Thursday with a relatively safe and small lineup of TV programmes, along with a slate of casual games for the family.

While M1′s service does not have the stellar A-list of football or movie content, its success or failure in pay-TV could be a test of how competitive Singapore’s new telecom landscape will be, after being reshaped with new next-gen broadband services and changes to exclusive pay-TV content deals this year. …

Credit: Shuttlestock

A strange thing happened yesterday in Singapore, when a slew of new broadband offerings became available at competitive prices, over the country’s new fibre optic network being extended to homes and offices.

The new next-gen network, four years in the making, is now starting to be available to homes and offices, which are being progressively hooked up. By mid-2012, 95 per cent of the island will be wired up.

Since the new network, partly funded by taxpayers’ dollars, mandates an open wholesale price for all telcos, no single operator gets preferential rates to use and resell the bandwidth provided by it. This means a level playing field for all telcos, and better deals for consumers down the stream. …

Visiting the big IT fairs today is very different from the experience 2-3 years ago. The last few tech shows (we have four every year, one every quarter, in Singapore which coincides with the school holidays) has become a lot more complicated and a lot more competitive.

Brands generally don’t set up their own booth and instead work with their resellers. It’s not a problem when there are 1-2 resellers representing each major brand at the show but when there are five different resellers within a 30 feet space representing the same brand, its a major confusion.

That was the case with one Acer booth where there were like Challenger, Harvey Norman and three other retailers all selling Acer laptops at the same booth. They all wore the same uniform, booths looked identical and sold the same packages and deals for the “official” deals listed on the brochure but each also had their own special deals (which is usually not on the brochure).
…

The street battles for mobile users are intensifying here, and these days, with cellphone operators fighing tooth and nail for customers, you can not only get a phone for free, but even free calls and mobile Internet – for up to 6 mths!

That’s exactly what I got for finally switching last night. I’ve been agonising on whether to leave M1 – I love it a lot, sorry, and I’ll miss the customer service after 12 years with it – but at the end of the day, it’s hard-earned cash that made my mind up.

How so? The HTC Touch Diamond phone which I bought just now cost me less than $200. Amazing? Well, let’s do the sums.

Original price for HTC Touch Diamond = $1098
Operator discount: -$500 =$598
StarHub PowerValue 300 plan discount -$100 =$498
Hubbing discount -$100 =$398
Trade-in my old O2 Atom -$200 =$198
Minus off my StarHub loyalty points -$50 =$148.

Amazing discounts, right? Truth be told, M1 and SingTel also have similar deals – they are both selling the Touch Diamond at around $598 with a basic plan.

But what swayed me in the end was also this amazing deal – 6 mths free subscription for new signups. That means another $48 (a mth) x 6 = $288 in savings.

Okay, I gotta pay about $37 for a new SIM card. But if you add the sums $148+$37-$288= -$103

Yup, I just got my phone free, plus I “pocketed” $103 (in fact I save another $60 coz of the free mobile Internet for $10 each month) because I don’t have to pay any subscriptions – almost – for the next half year!

The fact that SingTel has a similar free-six-months deal for its FIXED LINE users shows it is fighting a tough fight with StarHub. Will M1 now stand up and offer something similar? Let’s wait and see, but I don’t think it will stay till and envy the crowds at the StarHub shops (I had 60 people in front of me in the queue).

But in the end, I’m glad I’m rewarded for my patience these past 6 mths for not upgrading and tying myself in.. now, I am truly happy with the fruits of some real competition here – the toughest in years for sure.
 

It’s the latest sign that the “touch-screen” fad is heating up to fever pitch, thanks in much to the iPhone hype.

HTC’s excellent Touch Diamond, said to be the best “iPhone killer” of the lot, is sold out everywhere, including many telco shops.

Last Friday, the Plaza Singapura shop at StarHub was sold out (customer service officer said there was a queue of 80 people who have pre-ordered it). Then over the weekend, when the ads came out again, the phone was sold out everywhere soon enough too!

The M1 e-shop didn’t have it (even when I tried to renew my contract and was ready to click “submit”). StarHub certainly didn’t have it in many of its shops, and I’m wondering if finally SingTel does have some stock (given that it’s bet so much on the iPhone instead).

Is the iPhone really going to sway people in this number port game? With its delay here (SingTel won’t get the first batch of July 11 3G iPhones), it looks like people are probably busy signing up on contracts with the HTC phone instead.

A mini price war seems to have appeared between StarHub and M1 too. At the PC Show, the phone was snapped up for under $500. This week, StarHub has it under $400 (for medium and high plans).

And I am still undecided which one to go – M1 or StarHub. It will depend on who has stock for the HTC Touch Diamond. This is one gizmo which has most of the nifty “touch” stuff on the iPhone – without the annoying hoopla.