TPG Telecom wins bid to become Singapore’s 4th telco, MyRepublic loses out
TPG Telecom will become Singapore’s fourth telco at a winning bid of S$105 million (US$73.7 million)
Christmas is going to be extra cheery for Australia-based telecommunications company TPG Telecom. Today, it won the bid to become Singapore’s fourth telco at a winning bid of S$105 million (US$73.7 million).
MyRepublic, which officially entered the bidding war four months ago came in at second place at S$102.5 million (US$72 million).
“We are incredibly proud of the work our team has put in over the past two years,” said MyRepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues in an official press statement, “Bidding S$105M and beyond simply did not support our vision and business case for mobility in Singapore.”
According to the MyRepublic press release, the goal was to leverage “upon its existing fixed broadband operations to create a low break-even, fixed-mobile operator.” However, the bidding above S$105 million was not feasible for its current business model.
“We envisioned being part of a healthy ecosystem of four competitive operators — operators who would be spurred by a new entrant to support unlimited data-centric mobile service offers. At the current spectrum price, a new entrant must achieve a much higher market share to survive and be successful,” said Rodrigues.
The roadmap to rolling out the service
TPG’s spectrum rights are expected to go live on 1 April 2017 at the earliest.
According to a government press release, TPG will be provisionally allocated “60 MHz of spectrum made available in the New Entrant Spectrum Auction (NESA), comprising 20 MHz in the 900 MHz spectrum band and 40 MHz in the 2.3 GHz spectrum band to provide International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) and IMT-Advanced services (such as 4G services).”
Within the first 18 months, TPG will be required to use the spectrum to provide street level 4G services. By the 30th month, it will have to ensure its subscribers are able to use it inside road tunnels and within buildings. Within 54 months, TPG must provide these services inside MRT underground stations/lines.
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Image Credits: TPG Telecom
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