StarHub to Expand and Upgrade 3.5G Mobile Network to Deliver Unparalleled Mobile Surfing Experience and Improved Indoor and Outdoor Coverage

Singapore, 22 May 2008 – StarHub today appointed Huawei Technologies to expand and upgrade its current nation-wide 3.5G mobile broadband network to HSPA+ by 2Q-2009. This means that StarHub’s mobile network will soon be able to offer better overall mobile coverage island-wide indoors and outdoors, and support even larger volumes of data traffic than current offerings in the market.

StarHub’s upgrade reflects the operator's overall strategy to provide an unparalleled mobile broadband experience that can deliver better surfing experience, higher resolution on streamed mobile content and improved interactivity.

"Since our 3.5G launch in 2007, we have seen a dramatic 23-fold increase to our mobile data traffic as more and more mobile customers surf the Internet wirelessly, and access our mobile TV content including Barclays Premier League (BPL), CNN ‘Live’ and CNBC ‘Live’ and the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament," said Mr David Storrie, Head of StarHub’s Integrated Network Engineering. "With this Huawei appointment, we are looking at further investing in our mobile network to future-proof it as we prepare to meet the growing demands for our mobile broadband services while continuing to build our mobile content portfolio over the next 12 months."

HSPA+ will boost StarHub's current mobile broadband speed 1.5 times to 21Mbps (from the current 14.4Mbps) on the downlink, and over five times its uplink capability to 11Mbps (currently 1.9Mbps). In addition, StarHub plans to expand its mobile base station capacity to at least 3,500 base stations in support of its 1.8 million mobile customers.

With this complete IP-based mobile enhancement, StarHub is set to remain in pole position both in terms of mobile broadband speeds and in the depth of its mobile content.

"We are delighted that StarHub has demonstrated strong trust and confidence towards Huawei with this mobile network expansion and upgrade contract, which is set to further strengthen the strategic partnership between both companies," said Mr Victor Wang, President of Huawei Asia Pacific. "With our innovative technologies and abundant experience on next generation mobile network deployment worldwide, we are confident to build a world-class mobile network for StarHub in Singapore."

The network expansion and upgrade is part of StarHub’s S$200 million enhancement of its 3G/3.5G network to support higher downlink and uplink speeds. To complement this upgrade, StarHub is re-engineering its backhaul infrastructure and international links to enhance its current high-speed fixed and mobile broadband throughputs.

Since August 2007, StarHub has architected its mobile broadband network to operate at speeds of up to 14.4Mbps downlink (which is almost four times as fast as other competitors in the market) and up to 1.9Mbps on the uplink (a clear five times faster than other operators). Currently, StarHub mobile customers can experience speeds up to 7.2Mbps downlink and 1.9Mbps uplink.

For more information on StarHub, visit www.starhub.com.