Been waiting for SingTel’s 4G mobile broadband service?

Well, you won’t wait too long as the telco will launch it for both consumers and businesses - but how much will the bundle be?

According to DBS, the new 4G plan will bundle 10 GB of LTE data along with existing 50 GB of 3G data for an additional S$10 on top of S$59.90.

Here’s more from DBS:

SingTel will launch its 4G (Long Term Evolution – LTE)-based mobile broadband service on December 22 for both consumers and businesses in selected districts. 4G plans will initially be limited to dongle-based users as there is a lack of LTE enabled smartphones in the market. Typical download speeds would be 3.4-12 Mbps, which is 3-4x faster than 3G. More importantly, SingTel is offering lower data-cap in LTE plans to monetize data usage.

First stage pricing. The new 4G plan will bundle 10 GB of LTE data along with existing 50 GB of 3G data for an additional S$10 on top of S$59.90.

Second stage pricing. Upon the LTE roll-out reaching 80% of users by end-2012, 50GB 3G data cap will shrink for new subscribers of the plan and for existing subscribers on contract expiry.

Third stage pricing. When LTE roll out reaches 95% by 1Q 2013, 3G data cap may be dropped altogether, leaving new subscribers with 10 GB of LTE data.

Our view
Telcos are rectifying their mistake of offering too generous data caps in the past. Telco are offering users with incentives of higher speeds and better quality of service (priority pass from SingTel) to encourage more data usage at higher price. SingTel revealed that 11% of users account for 60% of data traffic and there is a need to charge these users for using the network.

All three players are limiting data-caps gradually. StarHub has one 3G plan with 30GB cap, while other plans are unlimited plans. M1, however, has plans with 5GB, 12 GB and 50 GB caps. M1 launched 4G in June 2011 for business use only while StarHub will launch LTE in 2H12.

We prefer SingTel and StarHub to M1 as National Broadband Network is progressing slower than expected. While the weakening of Indian Rupee in the last six months (~15%) may impact SingTel’s earnings adversely by 3-4%, regional associates in India and Indonesia are in good shape.