SINGAPORE — StarHub today (Aug 2) announced a slew of postpaid plans that they said will be “game-changing”.

The SmartSurf HD plans will enable Singapore consumers to make calls in High Definition (HD) and text as much as they want — as well as offer prioritised surfing experience on 4G.

Mr Chan Kin Hung, StarHub’s Senior Vice President of Personal Solutions said: “While we see rapid growth in mobile data use, we also recognise that mobile voice and SMS services continue to be the choice of communication mode for a segment of customers who relies heavily on voice calls and SMS in their everyday life.”

The SmartSurf HD Value, SmartSurf HD Plus, SmartSurf HD Premium plans will offer unlimited HD calls to StarHub users using HD-voice enabled phones — currently 80 per cent of mobile devices it sells have this feature, it said. The two top tier plans will also offer unlimited calls to non-StarHub numbers but the cheapest SmartSurf HD Value plan will be capped at 600 minutes. Local SMS and MMS will be unlimited for all plans.

Its 4G SmartAccess service gives users more bandwidth when the network is bogged down. According to StarHub, their base stations are able to differentiate users on plans that offer the 4G SmartAccess service and will allocate up to 25 per cent more network resources to users when they connect to any of its base stations. In tests, typical speeds of between 4.25mbps and 15mbps were registered; normal typical speeds are between 3.4mbps and 12mbps. The service will be available free for 24 months for the first two plans and free for as long as you hold on to the SmartSurf HD Premium plan.

However, the free data bundle for the highest priced SmartSurf HD plan will be capped at 1.5GB, which is less than the 2GB available on the cheapest SmartSurf Lite plan. StarHub said this is because the SmartSurf HD suite is targeted at users who rely heavily on calls and SMS. Excess data will be chargeable at S$5.35 per gigabyte (S$10.70 per GB for the SmartSurf HD Value plan), capped at S$107 per month.

Subscribers who sign up or recontract between tomorrow and Sept 30 will have the option of upsizing their data plan with an additional 1GB for free for six months. It will be charged at S$4.28 per month after the six-month period. This is an ongoing promotion applicable to all of StarHub’s SmartSurf plans.

Senior Analyst for Forrester Research Clement Teo said: “Some studies claim that HD Voice makes callers talk for up to five minutes longer, so it is a value add. However, I think it’s not really game-changing as StarHub’s competitors could launch HD Voice too, if not already.”

The new smartSurf HD plans will available for sign ups from tomorrow.