Tough year ahead for Singapore telcos

THE next couple of months will be an interesting period for the Singapore telecoms industry. First a spectrum auction will be held by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore for newly freed-up spectrum. After that, in April, the three incumbents - Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), StarHub and M1 - will get a better idea of what the gameplan is for Singapore's prospective fourth telco, Australia's TPG Telecom, which is expected to start building up its network from that month.

It's quite likely that the Australian company, which already has 60 MHz (megahertz) of spectrum that it bought for S$105 million in the closed auction meant for the new incumbent, will bid for more spectrum with the three established telcos during the open auction. The company is on record as saying that it …