StarHub unveils new Facebook Mobile app for smartphones

StarHub offers New Facebook application phones for free to mobile pre-paid Happy Stars customers.

StarHub and Facebook on Thursday announced that StarHub is the first mobile operator in Singapore to offer its customers another way to stay connected with a new Facebook mobile application for Java-powered feature phones. This new Facebook application provides a better experience for feature phones than other similar applications and mobile sites.

From 29 January 2011, the new “Facebook for Feature Phones” service will be available for free to all StarHub’s mobile pre-paid Happy Stars users. There will be no data access charges for these customers who can download and use the application locally.

Besides free unlimited local data access to Facebook using the new Facebook application, the Happy Stars top-up value of $17 also offers free incoming calls for 30 days, free 500 SMS, 120 minutes of local outgoing calls and 50MB local mobile data access – giving customers the best value for staying connected anywhere, anytime.
In addition, all of StarHub’s mobile post-paid and pre-paid customers can also access the application for free, till 30 April 2011.

The new Facebook application brings the popular features and user experience already deployed on Facebook mobile applications for smartphones to the world’s most popular feature phones, and is optimised for speed and performance on StarHub’s nationwide 3.5G mobile network. It includes several new and unique features that enable people to stay connected through Facebook including:

• Viewing and uploading photos from your mobile phone
• Synchronising your local address book contacts with your Facebook friends
• Facebook login to third party services within the application, such as news, sports, games, and weather

The new Facebook application is optimised to use as little data as possible while providing the user with the best user experience. The application uses less data than other similar applications or mobile sites, enabling it to be much cheaper for people to use when the trial period ends.

The new Facebook application is a collaboration between Facebook and Snaptu, whose platform brings leading web services to millions of people around the world on more than 2,500 different types of mobile devices via the Snaptu app, according to a StarHub report.

Said Stephen Lee, Assistant Vice President of Integrated Applications at StarHub: “Socially, more and more people, especially the youth are interacting with friends on Facebook, and the usage has largely shifted to the mobile phone these days. To support this growing trend, StarHub wants to empower its mobile pre-paid Happy Stars customers, who are mostly youths that carry a Java-enabled feature phone to easily connect to Facebook anywhere, anytime. We are therefore, delighted to work with Facebook to offer the new Facebook mobile application, so that these customers can enjoy an exciting mobile social lifestyle in an affordable way.”

“We are always looking to work with innovative operators on ways to enable people to easily access Facebook wherever they are,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business, Facebook. “Through our collaboration with StarHub, we’re thrilled to offer yet another way for people to stay connected with their friends and family through Facebook and bring a high quality and high speed mobile application experience to feature phones in an affordable way.”