By Graham K. Rogers

Mobile phone users in Thailand who are just getting used to a tentative rollout of 3G services may well be cut to the heart and gnashing their teeth at the announcement from SingTel that Singapore's first 4G service is to be launched. A press release from SingTel provides some information about the new service.

The 4G rollout is expected to be completed island-wide by early 2013 and will provide theoretical download speeds of up to 75Mbps and typical download speeds between 3.4Mbps and 12Mbps. Where there is no 4G available, 3G will be available with download speeds up to 42Mbps.

As from 5 June those who purchase new 4G-enabled handsets with SingTel Flexi and iFlexi plans can enjoy the 4G service. Three handsets will be available at launch: HTC One XL, LG Optimus LTE and Samsung Galaxy S2 LTE.

Mr Yuen Kuan Moon, SingTel's CEO Consumer Singapore, said: "SingTel is excited to be the first to introduce Singapore consumers to the next generation of mobile services. We are pleased to offer it at the same price as existing 3G services. Increasingly, smartphone users are seeking higher speeds and more consistent performance for their digital lifestyle needs. 4G will enable our customers to enjoy bandwidth-hungry applications, such as multimedia streaming, games, cloud storage and video conferencing, on the move like never before."

In the same press release, 4 new tiered data plans were announced for 3G and 4G users.

A monthly FlexiLite subscription will be S$39.90 giving 100 local outgoing minutes, 800 local SMS (up from 550) and 2GB data. FlexiValue has a monthly rate of S$59.90 and allows 200 minutes local outgoing calls, 900 SMS (650), and 3GB data. FlexiPlus is S$99.90 for 500 minutes, 1000 SMS (700), and 4GB data. FlexiPremium costs S$205 for 2000 minutes of local calls, 2500 SMS (2000) and 12GB data.

Excess usage and data cap: $5.35/GB (w GST) for 3G subscribers. Applicable to 4G subscribers during promotion from 1 July to 31 Dec 2012. $10.70/GB (w GST) from 1 Jan 2013 for 4G subscribers.

The press release also included the following comments from Mr Yuen:

"We need to break away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach, which is not sustainable in the long term. Today, 64 per cent of mobile data on our network is consumed by 10 per cent of our subscribers. This prevents the remaining 90 per cent from enjoying the full benefits of the network. With our tiered pricing model, subscribers will pay for what they use, and this ultimately allows us to keep prices for our plans the same over time despite rising network costs."

Presumably the "not sustainable" is the same carrier-speak that US and UK carriers have been using to explain higher charges and reduced data allowances.

However, Mr Yuen noted that based on current usage patterns, 90 per cent of subscribers should not incur higher charges, as their data consumption does not exceed the new bundles.

The full press release is available online.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.