Mobile devices and data services have long been essential for our modern lives. The average Singaporean has three connected devices and nearly half of Singaporeans cannot bear to part with their phone for a single day1.
The telecoms market in this country is highly saturated. Singapore has thirteen service providers that generally offer the same services. And that has created a big gap between what users need and what most telcos offer. Telcos are predominantly focused on providing consumers with more and more data, at cheaper prices with supposedly flexible plans. They believe that consumers simply want more and more mobile data. However, that is not true. And that idea has resulted in fewer new ideas and new models in the industry.
We believe innovation is key to revolutionising the industry: offering consumers better value, enhanced service quality and above all, innovative services that truly meet their needs.
SMEs & PMETs - the underserved market
Singaporeans are highly connected, with a mobile penetration rate of 152% and about 8.3 million active mobile subscriptions2. While this is so, there are still underserved markets. Interestingly, the needs of low to moderate data users, which include small businesses, remote workers (professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs)) and frequent travellers are not met.
These three groups have differing needs.
PMETs have increasingly adopted a work-from-home arrangement since lockdowns and movement restrictions were introduced. These remote workers are now predominantly relying on their home Wi-Fi, leaving them with large amounts of unused mobile data each month.
Business travellers are moderate mobile data users who need uninterrupted roaming services while on work trips. In addition to their local line, they need to subscribe to travel packages every time they travel abroad. With global travel now slowly resuming, this segment will grow strongly in the coming years.
According to BearingPoint//Beyond’s recent global report, SMEs account for 99% of the world’s businesses, yet 70% of communication service providers focus their resources on the enterprise market (1%). They estimate the SME services market will be worth $433 billion by 20253.
Differentiated offerings should be made available for these target segments.The PMET market size is about 2.5 million workers and there are 200,000 SMEs in Singapore.
Innovation with service-on-demand
Innovation is crucial to capitalise this underserved market opportunity. Going beyond offering customisable and flexible packages, we developed a unique Service-on-Demand model - the first in Singapore - which ensures a fair and modular way of using and paying for mobile services.
Simply put, this model can be compared to a Video-on-Demand service like Netflix, offering an array of content at a single click. Imagine if Netflix offered a customisable plan which required users to choose the amount of comedy or horror movies they would likely watch in a month. Options to add content or genres are available but with extra charges.
This would be a painful process for users and would make for a lousy consumer experience. This approach expects users to have complete knowledge of all the available services and features. Furthermore, it assumes that they can accurately predict their usage every month. This is exactly how telco plans are designed today.
Telcos allow users to personalise their mobile plans. Additional services like travel roaming plans and International Direct Dialling often require activations or extra charges. These customised plans are not always reflective of the customer’s actual usage and requirements. More often than not, consumers pay for more than what they use. According to the Infocomm Media Development Authority, the average monthly mobile data per user was only 6GB in 2020. Mobile data plans in Singapore range from 13GB to 60GB a month.
Mobile communication services need to be readily accessible to cater to SMEs, PMETs and business travellers adequately. The Service-on-Demand model was created to meet this need, offering 24/7 accessibility to a full suite of services, anytime, without a contract, subscription fees or activation charges.
For travelers, Global Roaming plans and Digital International Direct Dialling (IDD) services across 61 countries are available at their fingertips, removing the hassle of subscribing to additional travel roaming plans or buying local SIM cards at the airport.
Transforming mobile data usage with blockchain
Last year, internet service providers reported that internet usage rose by 60% as more people stayed home in Singapore due to the pandemic. Similarly, internet traffic jumped 10% to 20% since the Phase 2 (heightened alert) restrictions took effect on 16 May 2021.
COVID-19 caused a huge shift towards remote and hybrid work arrangements. Remote workers now find themselves with large amounts of wasted mobile data as they rely on their home Wi-Fi on a daily basis.
Remote working is likely to continue in the post-pandemic world. Professionals and businesses must be given new options to make better use of their mobile data. Our SwitchBack feature takes this into consideration, allowing users to fully ‘switch back’ unused mobile data to tokenised digital assets powered by blockchain. With these tokens, they can offset their bills, purchase or exchange for other services, or simply share it with their co-workers and team members.
This SwitchBack feature can be compared to the Singapore Parking app which charges users only for the parking duration and refunds them for unused time. Similarly, through SwitchBack, unused data never goes to waste. Its value gets transferred to an offset, or can be used to purchase or exchange for other mobile services.
Fair and modular offerings for today’s workforce
We believe that the Service-on-Demand model and the SwitchBack feature will revolutionise the telco industry and offer a truly innovative experience for mobile communication, providing a fair and modular way to access and pay for mobile services.
Sources:
1) https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/standing-out-in-singapores-crowded-telco-market-with-marketing-innovation
2) https://digitalinfluencelab.com/singapore-digital-marketing-statistics-2020/
3) https://telecoms.com/508672/operators-are-neglecting-the-massive-sme-opportunity-report/
