Singapore Won't Interfere With Mergers Among Phone Companies
By Linus Chua
Singapore, June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore, which opened up its phone market in April 2000 to about 300 new operators, said it won't interfere if companies want to merge or become partners.
StarHub Pte., Singapore's second-largest traditional phone company, said last week it will combine with Singapore Cablevision Ltd., the cable TV monopoly. In October, Telstra Corp. and Davnet Ltd., both based in Australia with separate phone licenses in Singapore, forged a marketing a alliance.
``As long as the consolidation does not lead to anti- competitive situations, we won't object,'' Yeo Cheow Tong, Singapore's communications minister told reporters at the Telecom Asia Reader's Choice Awards dinner. ``We'll let the market fight it out, and eventually, the market forces will ensure that those with viable, competitive services will survive.''
The green light from the government may lead to more mergers and acquisitions as the S$6 billion ($3.3 billion) market of just 4 million people is too small to support all the new entrants, analysts said. A year after the market opened up, only a few dozen new players are pushing their services.
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., the former phone monopoly, wanted to buy MobileOne Asia Pte., the second-largest cell phone company on the island. The acquisition would give SingTel 90 percent of Singapore's mobile phone market.
SingTel later bowed out of those plans, in part because of regulatory pressure, analysts said. MobileOne shareholders such as Cable & Wireless Plc and Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. in Hong Kong are evaluating bids for the cell phone company.
Select Alliances
Still, phone companies say it's becoming grayer on who partners and rivals are. As some players team up on certain services such as the Internet, they compete aggressively on mobile phones.
SingTel and MobileOne, for example, are fierce rivals in the island's cell phone market. However, the two companies share costs on some of the networks such as the country's subway.
``We're moving from the black and white days where you see someone as just a competitor or partner,'' Lee Hsien Yang, SingTel's chief executive, said at forum at CommunicAsia 2001, an industry trade show. ``The relationships are more complex as one of the features going forward is to form narrower partnerships.''
quote.bloomberg.com |
