The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) plans to facilitate the entry of a new mobile operator on the local market. The entry of a new mobile player is expected to increase competition in the mobile services market. In addition, IDA believes a new entrant would incentivize incumbents to invest in infrastructure upgrades leading to an improved quality of experience for consumers.
IDA plans to facilitate the entry of a new mobile network operator by setting aside 60 MHz out of the 225 MHz of spectrum at a lower indicative reserve package price of SGD 40 million, for a spectrum auction that is opened only to potential new entrants. This is in recognition of the fact that a new entrant will face entry barriers in a mature market, given the significant upfront capital investments required to deploy nationwide services for consumers. The new entrant who successfully bids for this set-aside spectrum package is required to deploy its own network and achieve nationwide rollout by end September 2018.
IDA also proposes to provide guiding principles to aid wholesale negotiations between Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and mobile network operators, recognising that MVNOs who have the ability to re-package wholesale services into their own service offerings can also bring about new service offerings for targeted consumer segments.
Industry representatives and the public can submit their comments on IDA’s proposal by 12 August.
