Singapore 3G auction plans announced

date: 27 October 2000, source: UMTS Weekly

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore has announced that it will auction four UMTS licences, in February 2001. Analysts had previoulsy expected the licences to be allocated through a combination of auction and beauty contest.

Yeo Cheow Tong, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, justified the decision at a press conference, "This decision was reached after extensive study of the info-communications landscape and taking into account industry views,". The full documentation and rules are to be published in December and bidding is to begin shortly afterwards. The minimum bidding will start at S$150 million (US$ 85.4m, or EUR101.792m). The current 2G market is valued at S$2.5billion It is publicly known that current Singapore operators, MobileOne, Singapore Telecom and StarHub Pte all want a license. Singapore Telecom has announced plans that it expects to spend S$1.3 billion on the 3G network in Singapore alone.

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