Who won and who lost in IMDA's spectrum auction?

THE latest spectrum auction by Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) will go down as one of the most significant of such exercises, ever since the first 3G spectrum auction way back in 2001. For one thing, IMDA's professed aim of injecting competition into the Singapore telecoms market - with the entry of a fourth operator, TPG Telecom - seems to be working even before TPG starts operations.

The final prices paid by the telcos for the right to use different spectrum bands on offer were four to seven times higher than the reserve price and thus surprised the market.

The four telcos - Singtel, StarHub, M1 and TPG - collectively committed to paying S$1.14 billion for the 175 MHz of spectrum that was on offer for the bidding. In comparison, the regulator raised S$360 million for the 4G auction in 2013.