StarHub partners ShoZu get chummy with Web 2.0

Damian Koh | Sep 13, 2007

Alarm bells ring and our inhouse Nabaztag's ears swirl whenever we come across words like "free" and "unlimited". That's the good thing about having a tech pet in the office. It prevents us from succumbing to the treachery of the pay-without-knowing syndrome.

And it seems like one Singapore telco, StarHub, is making a beeline for media-sharing enthusiasts' wallets with its new unlimited uploading service. The catch is you have to be a postpaid customer with the operator and there's a flat S$5.35 monthly fee. Dubbed ShoZu Access, the client-based application allows the user to upload content to popular Web 2.0 sites from their mobile phones without incurring extra charges, other than the monthly fee, of course. And it will run on most Symbian S60, Nokia Series 40, Windows Mobile 5 and 6 handhelds and those which support Java MIDP-2.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to upload content to the Web from a mobile phone. For example, Nokia has added Flickr support to its Nseries handhelds since April 2006, while Sony Ericsson has a blogging option that allows users to post content directly onto their sites. But to be able to upload unlimited content over the air for a low fixed monthly cost, StarHub claims this to be a first in Asia and Singapore.

You'll probably go "whatever" if you've secured a permanent seat in a free Wi-Fi zone or on an unlimited data plan, but this is something worth looking at if you have neither.

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