3G competition starts in Singapore

December 16, 2004

SingTel, MobileOne (M1) and Starhub, the three major telecommunications operators in Singapore, got into fierce competition in the 3G mobile phone service recently.

SingTel, the country's biggest 3G service provider, extended on Thursday the free-trial of video calls and live movie clips to the public after a three-month trial with selected participants.

Local media reports said that the free-trial will last until the end of next February and SingTel might commercially launch its 3G service by late March next year.

Meanwhile, rival M1 will start its month-long trial of 3G mobile phones on this Friday to offer live feeds of the latest news, music videos and movie trailers, which is the last of the three operators to do so.

On the same day, M1's 3G data cards will be available for purchase at 2,000 Singapore dollars (about 1214 US dollars) each. Users can slot the card into a notebook computer and enjoy free surf at high speed until the end of next March.

SingTel's 3G data cards are being sold at 1,088 Singapore dollar (about 661 US dollars) each.

M1 also plans to offer Asia's first 3G TV drama series to its users next year.

Starhub, which is currently conducting trials with 200 selected users, will sell 3G phones and let other users sign up by the end of this month.

At present, four types of 3G phones are available in the market at a price of under 1,000 Singapore dollars (about 607 US dollars) for all of them. They are Motorola A1000 and E1000, Sony Ericsson Z1010 and LG U8100.