MyRepublic's plans add new twist to telecom market

A NEW twist was added to the Singapore's telecommunications market last week with fibre broadband services provider, MyRepublic, reviving its plan to become a mobile telecom services provider. It announced its intention to become an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator). MVNOs lease bandwidth wholesale from a traditional telco and use it to sell mobile phone and data services under their own brand name.

Last December, MyRepublic lost in the bidding for the 60 MHz (megahertz) of spectrum reserved for the new fourth telecom operator to Australian company, TPG Telecom. TPG won the bid at S$105 million, beating MyRepublic's final bid of S$102.5 million.

Ever since it was announced that the government had decided to invite bids for a fourth telecom operator in Singapore, the incumbents, Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), StarHub and M1, have gone on record to express their unhappiness, given the super saturated nature of the Singapore market.