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SSX's Blog



Sunday, July 4, 2010

You're watching a world cup match at the comfort of your own living room with a bunch of family members or friends. All is well and Germany is steadily advancing into Argentina's field. Out of nowhere, loud roaring came from your neighbours' houses, from the Macdonalds outlet nearby and all around you. Your heart sank. It means that Germany is going to score in another 5 seconds on your Mio TV. Instant spoilers are being presented to you real time when you subscribe to Mio TV and Singtel aren't doing anything about it except blaming the football fans for their stupidity and loyalty.

The 5 seconds delay on present Mio TV setups are tremendously reducing Mio TV football fans' excitement when the rest of the world are receiving their transmission in real time. Singtel, however, is turning a blind eye to this problem and offering no form of compensation to the fans. Now that the world cup is already approaching the finale, the only relation Singtel has made to this problem was an irresponsible two liners amidst an article detailing its many Mio TV faults.

The quote is as follow:
For SingTel's mio TV, the enhanced features and advanced technology of the Internet Protocol or IPTV platform require conversion of the original TV footage from video signals to IP packets, resulting in this delay.

The spokesperson added that SingTel's customers are informed of this at the point of sale and sign up.

Source: CNA

That was a sarcastic remark by CNA right? The advanced technology Singtel is using slows down the transmission when other technologies are gearing towards reducing lag time. This is not the point, however, as the spokesperson's comment is the dubious part.

A quick survey of a few households who signed up for MioTV just before the world cup reveals that they did not know of this delay neither "at the point of sale" nor during "sign up". Perhaps they are just addressing the media for the sake of saving their own face, just like how Odex chairman claims to be an avid anime lover forced by circumstances. If one looks at the comment from another perspective, the spokesperson is simply implying that these recently-converted Mio TV users are just being stupid for signing up for the slower service when Starhub is offering theirs without this delay.

Obviously something is wrong here, since nobody in their right mind will sign up for the slower service of the two if they are making informed choices. So, are the masses lying or is Singtel lying? I shall leave it to the reader's perception.

Singtel's late entry into this market segment has been fraught with many difficulties. Their challenge on breaking their perceived starhub monopoly has led to Singtel winning exclusive rights to broadcast the popular Barclay league on their fault-laden (refer to earlier post) advanced technology and at the same time, increased the cost to consumer by a whooping 400%. It does make one wonder whether monopoly is truly the lesser of the two evils here.

This post may be late, but I am sure Singtel had more than enough time to address this properly. To any readers, please make informed and wise choice next time.

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Posted at 12:06 AM   (2 comments)