One shareholder, post-graduate student Tony Tan, 44, turned up armed with a spreadsheet of statistics at the AGM held at the Marriot Hotel.

Reading from his spreadsheet, the former London-based investment banker compared StarHub's margins, credit profile and share price performance and volatility with its smaller rival MobileOne (M1).

StarHub was 'performing no better than M1', so why was it proposing to pay its 13-man board almost three times what M1 paid its 11-man board, he asked. Mr Tan, who owns shares in both companies, had also attended M1's AGM last week.

His question on the need for such a big board prompted answers from three directors.

StarHub's chairman Tan Guong Ching explained that it had 'much more diversified services' - broadband, pay TV and mobile - than M1. Because of this, StarHub 'needed the numbers ... we shouldn't stint on staffing the board', he added

The company's compensation committee head, Mr Peter Seah, while conceding that Mr Tony Tan had 'a compelling comparison', defended StarHub's board's remuneration as 'fair'.

Chief executive officer Terry Clontz also said the board's remuneration is 'good value for money.'

Other shareholders raised concerns over the impact of StarHub's recently announced win of the operating company contract. Mr Tan said that StarHub had 'done our sums' and was 'convinced that it will give us a very good rate of return'.

The telco will also have no problems funding the necessary capital expenditure with 'existing resources and lines of credit', he said. StarHub shares closed at $1.99, two cents down. It is up about three per cent since the start of the year.