StarHub introduces family-friendly bundled mobile plan

SINGAPORE--StarHub has introduced what it is touting as Singapore's "first" mobile post-paid plan that offers existing customers the opportunity to share data, airtime and short message service (SMS) with other users.

According to a press release Thursday, the new SmartSurf SharePlus mobile plan is available to existing customers of the telco's SmartSurf 300 and SmartSurf 700 service plans for a monthly subscription fee of S$16.05 (US$12.65). With the new bundled data plan, users can subscribe up to two SmartSurf SharePlus lines to share the common pool of resources, the telco stated.

It added that subscribers to the new bundled plan can tap a shared pool of up to 700 minutes of outgoing call, 2,500 SMSes and 12 gigabytes of data locally.

"As smartphones and tablets become more common here, the new SmartSurf SharePlus mobile plan will appeal to parents who can maximize and share their bundled voice, SMSes and data plan with their children, and develop a closer relationship when they keep in touch with their [mobile devices]," said Joanna Chan, StarHub's vice president of personal solutions.

The bundling of data plans for sharing is another indication that unlimited mobile data plans are no longer a viable offering for telcos. Analysts ZDNet Asia spoke to earlier said telcos were moving away from unlimited data plans as the surge in data traffic was putting a strain on the limited radio spectrum and such plans were a costly way of selling spectrum.