SingTel gets AMPed

Christopher Toh

Lady Gaga (L), who 'quite likes' AMPed, performed at its launch yesterday. Photo by OOI BOON KEONG

WHEN is a telco not a telco? When it offers more than just telco services.

That's what SingTel's Singapore chief Allen Lew wants the local telco to do.

Yesterday, the Mainboard-listed company launched AMPed, an interactive music service for postpaid mobile customers - a first for Asia.

"Any telco has to reinvent itself," Mr Lew told Today. "This is one of our many growth initiatives. We decided two years ago that the telco of the future needs to be more than a carrier of bits and bytes. We will take our brand and push it into newer areas of multimedia. We didn't want another music download service. AMPed is a product that is part of this growth strategy for us."

AMPed not only offers unlimited music downloads for free, those who sign up can also get content like music videos, special invites to meet your favourite stars, wireless auto-sync between your computer and mobile phone, and a "social networking experience", where you can post photos or comments, share playlists and listen to pre-releases.

Top American artiste Lady Gaga, who appeared at the launch and performed a rambunctious showcase set at The Dome along Clarke Quay last night, said of the SingTel service: "I actually spent time last night working this, and I quite like it."

The service is developed in partnership with Universal Music Group, whose senior vice-president (Asean), Mr Sandy Monteiro, said: "The launch of this service could potentially double the revenues of Universal in Singapore."

Mr Lew was more guarded. "It's about creating differentiation from your competitors ... and yes, it will create value for us, but I can't tell you right now how much that could be," he said.

From TODAY, Business –Monday, 15-Jun-2009

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