Page 29 - Annual Report 2014
P. 29
in discussion with starhub's management
Nicholas Kevin upgrading
nationwide
Q> Q>
300Mbps
The quarterly dividend has been StarHub has identified enterprise as a
maintained at five cents per quarter growth segment. What are you doing to LTA-Advanced
for a few years now. Is it time for some achieve that? mobile network to
adjustment? deliver data faster
A>
A>
Our strategy to win a bigger piece of the enterprise
When we consider our dividend payout amount, we market is to be focused on the customer and earn
have to balance carefully with the financial resources the reputation of being a trusted business solutions
we need for investment, without which longer term provider that helps our customers build capabilities and
growth cannot happen. We strongly believe in differentiate their offering, so that they can better serve
sustainable dividend payments, so if we do increase the their own customers.
amount, we will make sure the amount is sustainable
going forward. Infrastructure is the foundation of our business and we
continue to build our core capabilities. Today, we have
Some analysts have pointed out that with our gearing, our own fibre backbone wired up to major commercial
we can stretch a bit and make one-off special buildings to enable high-speed connectivity; we have
payments, but, we very much prefer to be a reliable also further developed our cloud infrastructure and data
investment and give sustainable returns for our centre facilities to offer customers the scalability and
shareholders. agility they require; and we are upgrading our nationwide
LTE-Advanced mobile network to deliver data speeds
Q> of up to 300Mbps. With our core infrastructure coming
together, we can offer 'enterprise grade' high-speed, high
What are some of the significant CAPEX availability connectivity to support the business needs of
going these few years? our business customers.
A> We recognise that companies need more than just
connectivity, and we have been working with best-in-
In 2H2014, we had to pay for the 2600MHz spectrum, class technology partners to strengthen our solution
another tranche is expected to be paid in 2H2016 for offering to large corporations, SMBs and public sector
the 1800MHz spectrum. We also need to pay for the organisations. In 2014, we teamed up with IO, a global
construction of our new MediaHub, which broke ground leader in software-defined data centre technology to
back in November 2013. This 21,400 sqm gross floor provide customers with a secure IT infrastructure that is
area property will house our TV transmission centre. reliable, more cost-efficient to scale, and that operates in
We are also rolling out our own fibre selectively to an energy efficient facility. To-date, several companies in
commercial buildings nationwide. This move has three the financial, media and IT sectors are using the ‘StarHub
advantages; it provides high bandwidth backhaul to and Data Centre powered by IO’ to manage their IT resources.
from our mobile base stations, replaces existing leased To help SMBs lower upfront IT set-up cost, we offer
fibre, and allows us to offer our own fibre to commercial Software-as-a-Service via our cloud platform and Unified
customers. Communications solutions that they can buy on demand
and scale according to dynamic business needs.
All these CAPEX are included in our guidance, which
also comprises maintenance and upgrades in the We constantly innovate to deliver enhanced values in our
various networks that we have. We trust shareholders services to our customers. Our Internet-of-Things (IoT)
will appreciate the necessary investments we need to solutions not only bring connection between objects and
make to ensure future growth. systems but also provide meaningful data to facilitate
informed and timely business decisions; while our data
We strongly believe in sustainable analytics solutions provide deep insights on consumer
dividend payments, so if we do trends, behaviour and preferences, facilitating the use
increase the amount, we will make of intelligence to develop more innovative and effective
sure the amount is sustainable applications to enhance operations and planning. For
going forward. example, our new advertising solution – Smart Targeting
– leverages different sources of StarHub big data to offer
26 many lives of hubbing
