Singtel Entices Non Smartphone Users With Free Facebook Mobile Surfing

If you’re a Singtel mobile subscriber and do not have a data plan, rejoice – for the telco is now allowing you to access Facebook without the need to buy a smartphone or a data plan. 0.facebook.com is the site which you should go to for lightweight, text-only browsing. If there’s a link to a photo, you will be taken out of Facebook and incur data charges. This service will be available for “at least one full year”. Non smartphone customers can also access 0.facebook.com through the IDEAS WAP portal under the “What’s Hot” list of recommended sites.

Today in Singapore, about 70-80% of all handset sales are smartphones, which leaves about 20% of potential converts. This seems like a way for Singtel to entice their non smartphone, non data plan subscribers to be hooked onto the immediate accessibility of Facebook – a site many can’t live without. And perhaps eventually upgrade to a data plan and smartphone, which though might decrease telco revenue at the beginning, may lead to more overall lifetime revenue per user, with Credit Suisse predicting that “incremental revenues from smartphones are expected to boost total revenues in Singapore by 4.5 percentage points between 2009 and 2015”.