SingTel launches mobile surveillance service

SINGAPORE--SingTel today launched a home surveillance camera that the local carrier says will let users access and view images via their mobile phones.

Dubbed Mobile LIVECam, the 0.3-megapixels camera is equipped with a SIM card as well as a built-in microphone and 512-megabytes memory card for recording video-streaming images, SingTel said in a statement. In addition, the battery-operated camera is equipped with infra-red video to better capture images in dimly-litted spaces and at night.

According to SingTel, the surveillance camera operates on a 3G network. To view the images captured, users can dial in to the camera's assigned number using their 3G mobile phone. They can also use the numeric keypad on their phone to remotely control the camera, which SingTel said is able to pan, tilt and zoom up to three times.

In addition, the telco said its new offering supports features such as image brightness, volume, on-the-fly recording and image inverting.

"The Mobile LIVECam will appeal to anyone who likes to keep an eye on the things that are close to their hearts," Vicki Brady, SingTel's vice president of consumer marketing, said in a statement.

The service is available to all residential customers with an existing SingTel Mobile 3G account, at a monthly subscription fee of S$8.56 (US$5.85). Customers are required to pay a one-time equipment fee of S$353.10 (US$241.20), which is also payable through an instalment plan of S$13.91 (US$9.50) per month over 24 months.