Singapore To Build Islandwide Wireless Network

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), StarHub and MobileOne - the country’s three biggest phone operators - are among nine companies bidding to build a national wireless Internet network, the Government said yesterday.

The winning bids will be selected in September, Mr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts, said at the CommunicAsia trade show. He did not specify how many bids would be considered.

The network is part of the Government’s plan to boost Singapore’s competitiveness in technology against regional rivals including China, Japan and South Korea.

The other bidders are Bluengine Asia Pacific, iCell Network, Pacific Internet, Pacific Mediacom, Qmax Communications and Zaienta Singapore, according to the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Singapore’s telecommunications regulator.

The wireless network, which will be available in areas including the central business district, major shopping locations and residential centres, is expected to start operations in December, said IDA chief executive Chan Yeng Kit.

Singapore is also planning a wired high-speed Internet network.

Thirty-three companies are bidding for the wired network, including SingTel and the local units of Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Datacraft Asia, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West and Siemens.

The winning bid or bids will be announced by December and must ensure the network will cover half of the city-state by 2012. The cost of the wired network submitted in the bids range from $500 million to $5 billion, Mr Chan said. He said the Government was unlikely to own the networks.

“We believe that the private sector is in the best position to own and operate infrastructure,” Mr Chan said. For the wireless network, “the Government is not looking to own anything at all.”News source from TodayOnline.com