Strengths as IP-VPN and Network service provider recognised

Singapore, 14 December 2005 – Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Asia’s leading communications company, is pleased to announce that it has received excellent ratings from corporate users for its international data services in Gartner’s latest ‘Survey of Best International NSPs, Asia/Pacific 2005’ report.  SingTel also won the award of Asia Pacific’s leading IP-VPN Service Provider in the ‘International Data Services Market Analysis 2005’ conducted by Frost & Sullivan.

Mr Wong Soon Nam, SingTel’s Vice President of Corporate Business Marketing, said: “We are delighted with the recognition given to SingTel as a leading IP-VPN and Network service provider in Asia Pacific.  This affirmation will inspire us to continuously enhance our operational excellence in the competitive corporate data market in this region.”

Based on Gartner’s users’ survey, which evaluated major network service providers on a range of international data services, SingTel consistently outperformed global carriers in providing pan-regional corporate networks in Asia Pacific.  The company also improved its ratings as one of the leading service providers in Asia Pacific.

Mr Wong said: “With our vast network infrastructure and assurance to provide quality service and customer satisfaction, multinational companies are assured of SingTel’s ability to meet their data communications needs in this region and beyond.

“SingTel is committed to running the extra mile for our customers.  For example, we managed to install a circuit to Hyderabad in just 17 days after a customer’s contracted carrier decided to cease its India operations.  In China, we successfully installed circuits for a customer during the Golden Week holiday, a challenging period as most Chinese carrier employees were on leave.”

Gartner survey

SingTel emerged as the clear leader of International Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), receiving the highest overall score for this service.  It was rated the highest for reliability, throughput and transit delays.  SingTel scored highly on support, installation and repairs.  The company also received a good rating for price. 

For the International Leased Line category, SingTel was ranked No.1 for performance and installation and repairs.  SingTel also achieved very high scores for reliability and support.  Gartner noted that SingTel has taken several steps to improve its support capabilities especially in two critical markets - China and India. 

These included assigning project coordinators to ensure timely provision of circuits for customers, as well as placing service managers to help customers with network problems, analysis and enhancements.  Gartner observed that SingTel has improved its call-handling operations significantly by insourcing its global helpdesk.

In the International IP-VPN category, SingTel received high scores for network performance, including top marks for reliability and transit delay.  SingTel has invested significantly in its IP backbone in the past two years and is continuously upgrading the quality of its IP-VPN service.

SingTel is highly rated for its Local Access Lines.  It attained top marks in four out of six measures, including reliability, performance, support and installation and repairs.

SingTel Optus, SingTel’s wholly-owned subsidiary, and SingTel associate Bharti were also rated more favourably against the respective incumbents in Australia and India for Local Access Lines.   This reaffirms SingTel’s unique value proposition in these two markets.

Frost & Sullivan award

SingTel won the award of Asia Pacific’s leading IP-VPN Service Provider in the ‘International Data Services Market Analysis 2005’ conducted by Frost & Sullivan.

The parameters for evaluation were: Service Offerings Portfolio, Network Infrastructure/ Coverage, Financial, Pricing Levels and Others (which include global/regional support infrastructure, customer counts, major customer wins in 2005 and other comments).

SingTel is a pioneer in Asia Pacific in adopting and actively promoting IP-VPN services.  SingTel launched its suite of ConnectPlus services in April 1998.  It was built on the company’s private IP infrastructure supported by a dedicated MPLS-enabled platform.

Through its Meg@POP service, SingTel provides a suite of managed, business-class IP services aimed at providing a flexible, scalable and cost-effective one-stop IP networking solution to customer’s business needs. To-date, SingTel has the largest domestic IP-VPN network with more than 10,000 ports.

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Note:

1.   SingTel’s suite of international data services includes international leased lines, frame relay, ATM, IP-VPN (Internet Protocol-Virtual Private Network), and local access lines.

2.   Gartner is the world’s leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry.  In its survey, corporate users were asked to evaluate data services on the following parameters: reliability, throughput, transit delays, support, installation and repairs, range of options and price.

3.   The Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific International Data Service Market Analysis is conducted annually to recognise companies with outstanding performance in Asia Pacific.  The awards seek to showcase best practices in the service provider segments. It has benchmarked 11 global/regional data service providers on a single platform to compete for the most coveted titles.  Benchmarked against the highest standards of measurement criteria, the recipients of these awards represent the best-of-breed in Asia Pacific.