Communications Technology - Communications Executive

ADIT HARINASUTA

Adit Harinasuta
StarHub

Adit Harinasuta is head of StarHub’s Services and Solutions. Harinasuta and his team are responsible for the development and management of StarHub’s information, communications, and entertainment services and solutions for consumer, business, and wholesale customers. This also includes the delivery of StarHub’s “Hubbing” strategy across platforms.

Any lessons learned to share from your experience (going back to late 2006) of channel-bonded high-speed data service? We successfully launched the pre-DOCSIS 3.0 platform in December 2006 on a nationwide scale. We are glad that the experience we have gained from our early deployment in Singapore has helped accelerate the global development of DOCSIS 3.0. The specification has become an international standard now. We believe this will encourage more innovation in the industry and create a global marketplace for channel bonded services.

“We are glad that the experience
we have gained from our early
deployment in Singapore has helped
accelerate the global development
of DOCSIS 3.0.”

How has your Velocity site supported the higher speed tiers of service? The Velocity concept is simple—to be a sort of online content aggregator in Singapore by providing end-to-end solutions to online service providers. This is so that Singapore broadband users (and around the Southeast Asian region) get a much better broadband experience since the content sits “closer” to the user. We launched it in 2005 and have seen very good growth and support. Obviously, as applications evolve and demand for bandwidth increase, the Velocity solution has evolved to support them. We’re particularly pleased to work with carrier

neutral data center partners in Singapore to support the Velocity program.

Any other developments on your 3.5G/HSPA
wireless network?

Recently, we appointed Huawei to expand and upgrade our 3.5G network to HSPA+ by 2Q-2009. HSPA+ will boost our current mobile broadband speed 1.5 times to 21 Mbps (from the current 14. 4 Mbps) on the downlink, and more than five times its uplink capability to 11 Mbps (currently 1.9 Mbps). In addition, we are also expanding our mobile base station capacity to at least 3,500 base stations in support all of our 1.8 million mobile customers.

Can you update us on any results from your mobile TV trial with M1 and Sing Tel? We started the mobile TV trial with Mediacorp, M1 and Sing Tel at the end of July and have garnered some good feedback on the service. We’ve been monitoring viewership patterns to determine how receptive users are to the service. So far, it’s been pretty much what we have expected. If that sounds a little cautious, it’s because we are aware that mobile TV is very, new and so public acceptance will take time. But we’re optimistic.

Are any StarHub services/technologies resonating especially well with business customers? Mobile broadband (aka HSPA) certainly is something that we’ve seen some positive traction on. With our upcoming enhancements, we expect even stronger interest from businesses as they “mobilize” their workforce here to stay competitive and productive.

Were you able to provide a “three screens” experience for customers following this year’s Olympics? Not exactly three screens, unfortunately—we’ve delivered the Olympics broadcast over cable TV (six channels) and mobile (also six channels through our new mobile TV client application). But we are making a concerted effort to provide the same content across our cable TV, mobile and broadband platforms as has been signaled by our rebranding of all our TV and video entertainment content under a single banner— StarHub TV. The brand will encompass cable TV (StarHub TV), mobile (StarHub TV on Mobile) and broadband (StarHub Online).