Fourth telco must spur competition and innovate: Yaacob

Singapore

THE company that eventually wins Singapore's fourth wireless telecommunications (telco) carrier licence must be able to spur competition and bring benefits to consumers, said Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim in parliament on Monday.

"We believe there is space for a fourth telco. We don't just want another telco. We want a telco that can bring innovation to the market, and therefore cause the existing telcos (Singtel, M1 and StarHub) to also innovate," he said.

He was responding to a question by Tampines GRC Member of Parliament Baey Yam Keng, who wanted to know how the government would ensure that high telco service standards would be maintained if the partners of the licences did not have proven track re…