Users have option of buying own cable modems off retail shelves

 

 Singapore, 25 February 2003 - StarHub, Singapore's leading info-communication provider, today announced that MaxOnline customers will be able to enjoy unlimited broadband access at a lower price, from tomorrow. In addition, MaxOnline will be renamed MaxOnline 1500 to better reflect the truly broadband download speed that the service provides. 

 

Subscribers will pay only S$56 monthly (S$58.24 with GST), down from the previous S$63 monthly rate (S$65.52 with GST). MaxOnline 1500 continues to offer unlimited usage of a premium broadband service of up to 1.5 Mbps download speeds.

 

Said Ms Tham Loke Kheng, StarHub's Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing, "With the rising popularity of broadband, StarHub strives to make broadband usage even more affordable. We believe our customers will welcome the new rates and we look forward to more joining our family of over 100,000 users."

 

When MaxOnline was launched in December 1999, it offered significant discounts on the service to encourage broadband adoption. In addition, StarHub also invested in cable modems and loaned the equipment free to MaxOnline customers in order to protect them from making expensive hardware investments on a then-evolving technology.

 

"With the launch of MaxOnline, we were among the first in the world to deploy cable modems using an open standard technology called DOCSIS1. At that time, there were only a limited number of companies worldwide producing DOCSIS-certified cable modems. The average selling price of the modems was rather prohibitive, at about US$250 per modem. As such, we had borne the cost of these modems in order to help our customers experience true broadband without high upfront costs."

 

With the rapid adoption of DOCSIS technology worldwide, many companies including major players like Motorola, Samsung and Thomson, are manufacturing cable modems with aggressive pricing and innovative modem features to woo broadband Internet users.

 

"As broadband users have become more sophisticated, the selection of cable modems has also broadened with the entry of many industry players to the market offering new features and more attractive pricing. Hence, with our recent adoption of DOCSIS 1.12, StarHub and our industry partners feel that it is timely to introduce cable modems for retail, so that customers can buy modems off-the-shelf that suit them best," said Ms Tham.

 

As the revised subscription rate for MaxOnline 1500 is for Internet access only, existing MaxOnline 1500 subscribers can buy over their current modems from StarHub by paying monthly instalments of S$7 (S$7.28 with GST) over eight months. Subscribers may also use their StarHub Rewards points to redeem the modem.

 

More than 80 StarHub-authourised computer retail and electronic stores island-wide carry cable modems for retail. Customers can also subscribe to MaxOnline 1500 at these outlets at the same time. In addition, StarHub also offers subscribers cable modems at a special promotional rate of S$94.50 (S$98.28 with GST).

 

For a list of these retail stores, please log on to: www.starhub.com/online.

 

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1 DOCSIS - Data over Cable Service Interface Specification, is a recognised global open standard technology for broadband cable network and cable modems.

 

2 DOCSIS 1.1 - The DOCSIS 1.1 technology has the ability to offer voice services and other new features so cable operators can have the flexibility of offering more innovative service plans.