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re: clo and mrm/skg and mul Sknetglobal Signs McDonald’s Restaurants as foundation partner

7th July 2003
Singapore: SkyNetGlobal Pte Ltd, the Singapore subsidiary of SkyNetGlobal Limited (ASX: SKG), Australia’s No.1 wireless (WiFi) service provider, today unveiled plans to deploy Singapore’s largest wireless hotspot network comprising of 200 locations offering consumers low cost wireless, high speed internet, voice and video services.

The announcement follows the signing of an exclusive agreement with McDonald’s Restaurants Pte Ltd, Singapore’s largest quick serve restaurants chain, which will contribute up to 140 consumer hotspots to the SkyNetGlobal network. Other locations targeted by SkyNetGlobal will be business hotspots located outside the city such as business and industrial parks where public internet access facilities are not easily available.

SkyNetGlobal Singapore’s “next generation” WiFi network will be built specifically to be PDA and smart phone friendly, offering users low cost broadband internet access, telephone calls and a range of high quality video and gaming content. In addition, SkyNetGlobal will develop its own proprietary software that will offer what it believes to be the “killer application” missing in today’s wireless hotspot environments. The network is expected to be operational by February 2004.

SkyNetGlobal will operate the wireless broadband network on an “open access model” with full global roaming capabilities, where any carrier or ISP, irrespective of their country of origin, will be able to offer the hotspot service to their own customer base under their own brand, thus eliminating the user’s need of having to establish new accounts and receive additional bills.

“We are going to take everything we have learnt over the past 3 years in operating Australia’s largest WiFi network, and do it ten times better in Singapore. Singapore is an ideal choice because of its geographic size, high broadband penetration and adoption of mobile computing devices. The existing competitive landscape in Singapore presents a window of opportunity for SkyNetGlobal to become No. 1, in achieving at least a 50% share of the country’s public wireless LAN market,” said Jonathan Soon, Chief Executive Officer of SkyNetGlobal.

Frost & Sullivan, a leading independent consulting company predicts that the public wireless LAN market in Singapore is poised to witness explosive growth, in terms of both subscriber base and revenues. Between 2002 and 2008, the market will see revenues growing by over 40 percent CAGR, from US $5.3 million to US $42.1 million. The proliferation of hotspots, increased awareness and the growing need among consumers to stay connected are expected to drive the market for Wi-Fi services.

“The success of Public WLAN services can be summed up in a single word—Location. Properties that are strategically positioned and offer a greater degree of convenience and utility to consumers are the biggest draw among service providers. Such locations open up possibilities of synergistic and mutually beneficial partnerships among property owners and service providers,” said Frost & Sullivan.

“The latest alliance between McDonald’s and SkyNetGlobal to create a wide area hotspot environment once again demonstrates the business case behind such relationships. We believe that this alliance will set new standards in wireless hotspot service provisioning,” added Frost & Sullivan.