MyRepublic’s policy of not imposing download speed limits to stay after takeover: StarHub
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Since the acquisition was announced, several MyRepublic customers voiced concerns on whether the internet service provider’s policy would be affected.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
SINGAPORE - StarHub, which completely took over the broadband business of MyRepublic on Aug 12, has broken silence on the latter’s no-throttling policy, assuring concerned customers that they will continue to enjoy this feature.
Throttling is the imposition of speed limits on international downloads.
Since its launch in 2011, MyRepublic has cosied up to users by promising no throttling, allowing users to experience little lag in surfing, gaming and video streaming.
Mr Matt Williams, StarHub’s consumer business group chief, confirmed in a media briefing on Aug 20 that MyRepublic customers will face no throttling.
“Just to be crystal clear, MyRepublic broadband service will continue as it is – great quality, super fast and absolutely reliable,” said Mr Williams.
Since the acquisition was announced would be affected
Mr Williams also referenced policy wording on StarHub’s website stating that it implemented network management for fixed broadband during peak usage hours to ensure fair and consistent access for all users on its network.
The website also said: “StarHub employs network management to ensure no protocols, applications and users should dominate the finite network resources.”
This page on network management for fixed broadband could not be found on Aug 20.
Mr Williams said that StarHub “does not really throttle services”, and the policy is there to give the telco the right to take action if someone was abusing the network by spamming and flooding it with data.
“We will be changing what that says because we don’t want that to be the perception, because that is not what we deliver,” he added.
In a statement to The Straits Times, a StarHub spokeswoman said that it does not throttle customers’ connections under normal circumstances.
“Network management measures are applied only in exceptional or emergency cases, to protect service quality for all. This reflects our longstanding commitment to fair, consistent and reliable connectivity,” the spokeswoman said.
ST has asked for the circumstances in which network management measures would kick in.
The spokeswoman said that StarHub “may take appropriate action in rare cases of sustained network abuse”.
“As we integrate MyRepublic broadband, our focus is on bringing the best of both companies together. Any future updates will be shared transparently, and always with our customers’ interests at heart,” she added.
Network engineer Askar Mujhib, who has been a MyRepublic customer since 2022, was relieved to hear that StarHub will not be throttling network speeds.
The 27-year-old avid gamer had switched from Singtel to MyRepublic because of the latter’s no-throttling policy.
On MyRepublic’s network, he can download 60GB games in about 15 minutes. He said he used to spend an hour doing similar tasks on Singtel’s network.
“I’m working a full-time job, so those precious moments waiting to download a file or game could be converted to playing the game,” he added.
Combined, StarHub and MyRepublic have 578,000 fixed broadband subscribers. They come second after market leader Singtel, which has 680,000 broadband subscribers. M1 trails behind with 223,000 subscribers.
