SINGTEL

Detailed Analysis of Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel)



Detailed Analysis of Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel)

Introduction to the Company

SingTel started its operation in 1992, and went public the same year. SingNet was created in 1994 and turned out to be the largest internet service provider in Singapore and became a subsidiary of SingTel in 1998. SingTel (Singapore telecommunications) specialize in providing telecommunication, multimedia and technology and information communication services in the country and across various geographic regions. The SingTel group is the largest telecommunication provider in Asia with a customer base of approximately 434 million customers in 25 countries. SingTel has stakes in different telecommunication companies in countries including Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Asia Pacific, India, Europe and US (Market Line, 2012, pp. 4-8).

The SingTel group's revenues are generated from 8 different services: data and internet, mobile phone communication, fixed line, national telephone, sale of equipment, international telephone, pay televisions and others. SingTel operational span extends from Singapore, Australia and, associates and joint ventures. In Singapore the group has 3.5 million subscribers by the end of 2011. The operations of Singapore are completely managed by OPTUS, a SingTel subsidiary domiciled in Australia. It has 9.4 Million mobile phone subscribers and 1 million fixed line subscribers in Australia (Market Line, 2012, pp. 4-8).

Companies which are associated with SingTel and joint ventures are Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS) in Thailand, Bharti in India, Globe Telecom in the Philippines, and PT Telekomunikasi Selular in Indonesia. The group also has interests in Warid in Pakistan and PBTL in Bangladesh. By the end of 2011, Bharti had 233 million mobile subscribers while Telkomsel, AIS, Globe, Warid and PBTL had 107 million, 33.5 million, 30 million, 15.3 million and 1.8 million mobile subscribers (Market Line, 2012, pp. 4-8).

SingTel acquired Optus, which is a telecommunication company in Australia in 2001. SingTel started trial of 3G video calls in 2002. SingTel along with Samsung signed a distribution agreement for IP-VPN distribution agreement. SingTel acquired 100% ownership of Reef Networks which owned the fiber optic cable network in Queensland. SingTel's Optus purchased the remaining 74.2% f stake of Virgin Mobile Australia which was initially, a joint venture. To provide broadband services in Maldives and adjoining resorts SingTel launched SingTel launched a satellite based broadband network (Market Line, 2012, pp. 4-8).

Role in the Market

The role of Singapore telecommunication is to provide following services to its consumers. The service base is divided into two broader categories:

Customer:

Landline

Mobile

Broadband

Video Calls

Pay TV

Business services:

Data and internet services

Voice services

Wireless services

Managed services

Video conferencing

Satellite communication services

Carrier services

ICT services

Current Market Conditions

SingTel's major competitors are Vodafone, Telstra and Hutchison Telecommunications. SingTel is at the crossroads where severe changes in the industry are taking place and creating both opportunities and risks for SingTel. The trends of the industry are making a shift towards devices, content, applications and services and the process of traditional telecommunication services are continually declining. The level of market competition is ever increasing and has intensified the competition to new ...