IDA considering fourth mobile licence award, reports say

National telecoms regulator the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is reportedly mulling proposals to license its unallocated third-generation spectrum, probably to a new market entrant, The Business Times reports. The city state conducted an auction of four lots of spectrum in the 1900MHz-2100MHz band in March 2001, but whilst the incumbents – Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), MobileOne Asia (M1) and StarHub – were awarded concessions, the final parcel remained unsold. The IDA is now considering plans to boost the bandwidth allocation of the three established players, to provide more scope for mobile broadband services, while simultaneously looking for a fourth operator to provide high speed mobile services for local users.