SingTel will begin prioritizing data transfers to its higher-paying users in a bid to cope with growing data traffic.
Singapore’s largest operator will from 15 June adjust its backend system to offer customers on higher-priced mobile broadband dongle plans more reliable surfing speeds during peak periods. The system tweaks could result in customers on lower-tier plans getting poorer than usual access speeds during particular periods.
The carrier has also for the first time published the typical speeds users can expect to achieve on the plans it offers.
SingTel’s executive vice president of digital consumers Yuen Kuan Moon said at the launch of the priority plans that both moves could be viewed as a response to complaints from customers who claimed they were not getting the speeds paid for, particularly during peak periods.
Yuen said SingTel’s methodology for measuring typical speeds consisted of using probes, which would be placed in publicly accessible indoor areas in town during the day and transferred to residential districts at night, where traffic tended to shift. SingTel derived typical speeds from the probes, which measured the speed at which PC dongles in given areas accessed SingTel’s FTP server.