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:
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.
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.
Labels: Singapore, Singtel, World Cup 2010
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My take on MioTV for the world cup.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
| The air horns in the background are really irritating. Plus, on friday, the jitters were really bad. I heard people exclaiming but hey, my screen FROZED. After HALF AN HOUR of automated calls and call transfer and waiting, the singtel guy on the phone told me that everybody without HD TV are experiencing that problem and that they will fix it by the next match. I didn't check because I wasn't interested in the next match. Then come Saturday. Voila, I couldn't get any image for the first half of the S.Korea match. I thought it was the modem warming up so I waited. After 10 minutes, I figured something was wrong. First thing I did was to call the technical helpline again. This time, in addition to the automated calls and waiting, the lady over the phone REFUSED to transfer the call for me. I kept going "Could you transfer the call for me?" and she kept going "Please call 16881(blahblahblah)" which is precisely what I did to get to her. Okay, I admit, I may have pressed a wrong number somewhere because I couldn't wait for the automated voice to finish announcing all the choices. Seeing how useless this is going, I called again, while fiddling with the set up box. I got to the correct guy after another 5 minutes but he was more concerned with getting my particulars right than helping me solve my problem. Frustrated, I pulled out the power cord and plugged it back, essentially doing a hard reset. Next comes the infamous 3 minutes to switch on, 2 minutes to warm up waiting time and in the meantime, I was filling that guy in as requested with my name, the number I was calling from, whether I was calling from the number mioTV is connected to, whether I am using Singtel internet services (which I am not), etc etc, and finally the state of the box (i.e. colours of the light). Finally the screen came on and I told that guy I fixed the problem on my own already. Damn, I should have done that in the first place. The saleslady confirmed with me that their "new enhanced MioTV layout" won't have such problems too. I only asked this after it is set up though, since I was kept in the dark by my parents until to my horror, a dubious white box appeared near the computer and an evil twin appeared beside the Starhub box and I see a hot pink screen (it still looks hot pink no matter how the technical guy insists its magenta). Thankfully the internet light on the white box wasn't blinking as well. I regretted telling my parents to fully utilise the new box and buy World Cup package from MioTV though. I wonder if it's better if I stuck with the green camp. Good job Singtel. Excellent CRM. :thumb2: EDIT: BTW, I did not know that we were informed that there is delay in footage receiving "at the point of sale and sign up", contrary to what Singtel spokesperson claimed. |
Labels: Singapore, Singtel, World Cup 2010
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