Q&A SingTel SingTel: a leader in Asia SingTel have made a very promising start to the year, reaching the finals of the World Teleport of the Year and embarking upon a major upgrade of their ground infrastructure. Helen Jameson spoke to Titus Yong, Vice President of Satellite for SingTel about their upgrade, their new satellite, ST-2 and industry trends within the Asian region. Titus Yong Question: Congratulations on reaching the finals of the World Teleport of the Year. How has SingTel achieved this? Titus Yong: The nomination acknowledges the reliability and high performance of SingTel's teleport services. We have maintained a remarkable service availability of 99.98 percent for a staggering three consecutive years! SingTel is an integrated teleport operator that offers fixed and mobile satellite services. With our world-class infrastructure, experience and expertise, we provide connectivity and infocomm technology (ICT) solutions on land and at sea. We have the advantage of owning our own teleport facilities as well as extensive local and international fibre networks. Our four teleports are interconnected via diverse fibre routes with full network redundancy. Customers will enjoy peace of mind, knowing that their applications are supported with proven performance and reliability. Question: How significant is it that SingTel is the only Asian operator to have been nominated for the award? Titus Yong: We're very honoured to be the first Asian satellite operator nominated for this award. This recognises our leadership in the satellite industry. Through our commitment to excellence, we hope to continue to be an example for operators around the world to follow. Question: SingTel will be carrying out a major upgrade of the terrestrial infrastructure over the next six years. Can you tell us more about this and why you are carrying the upgrades out? Titus Yong: SingTel will invest significantly over six years to upgrade its infrastructure at its three satellite earth stations in Singapore. The upgrade ensures that customers on land, at sea or in remote areas will always enjoy high performance and reliability for their mission-critical applications. For the past three years, we have maintained service availability of 99.98 percent. The terrestrial infrastructure upgrades are part of our efforts to maintain this service excellence. Currently, SingTel has more than 30 antenna systems accessing satellites in the Pacific and Indian Ocean region. Systems that are reaching end of life will be replaced or upgraded with new infrastructure that offers enhanced transmission capabilities. SingTel is dedicated to providing customers with the best satellite coverage and cutting-edge solutions that will boost their productivity and help them reduce costs. Our success in the satellite business for over 35 years has been built on our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer satisfaction and service excellence. Question: Why has SingTel decided to go ahead with this upgrade in this difficult economic climate? Is it not a risk? Titus Yong: Despite the difficult economic climate, we continue to see healthy demand for ser vices such as Maritime VSAT, FleetBroadband and Satellite IP. The services that are most in demand right now are IP-based services such as Maritime VSAT, FleetBroadband and Satellite IP. 22 w w w.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 2009 Singtel.p65 22 14/05/2009, 11:55