The company is thelargest mobile network operator in Singapore with 4.1 million subscribers and through subsidiaries, has a combined mobile subscriber base of 770 million customers as of 31 March 2022.[4][5][6][7] The company was known asTelecommunications Equipment until 1995. Singtel providesISP,IPTV (Singtel TV) and mobile phone networks[8] and fixed line telephony services.
Singtel has expanded aggressively outside its home market and owns shares in many regional operators, including full ownership ofAustralia's second largest telcoOptus and 32.15% ofBharti Airtel, the second largest carrier inIndia.[9]
Singtel controls significant market share in Australia and Singapore, with 82% of the fixed-line market, 47% of the mobile market and 43% of the broadband market in Singapore.[10] Singtel is also the second-largest company by market capitalisation listed on theSingapore Exchange[11] and is majority owned byTemasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government.[12] Singtel is an active investor in innovation companies through its Singtel Innov8 subsidiary, founded in 2011 withS$200 million start up capital.
1883: Singapore's phone network was operated by theOriental Telephone and Electric Company (OTEC). The Public Telephone Exchange set up 60 telephone lines connecting local businesses of that era.[13]
1907: OTEC was replaced by a new Central Telephone Exchange in Hill Street[13]
1955: TheSingapore Telephone Board (STB) is incorporated as a statutory board with exclusive rights to operate telephone service within Singapore.[14]
1 April 1974: Merger of STB into Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS, Telecoms or Singapore Telecom). Before 1974, STB was responsible for local services, while TAS provided international services.[14][15][16]
1992: SingTel introduces the call zone service, made defunct in 1997.
October 1993: SingTel became a public company (Singapore Telecommunications Limited) via anIPO.[16]
1997 SingTel was compensated $1.5 billion by the Singaporean Government for early termination of its monopoly,[17] based on projected earnings lost between 2000 and 2007 due to its loss of monopoly.[18]
In 2000, SingTel lost its domestic monopoly in Singapore, with the government deregulating the telecommunications industry.[19][20]
2001: SingTel is awarded a 3G licence in April.
In March 2001, Singtel purchased Optus for between $7.4 billion to $8.5 billion[21]
2003: SingTel sells 60% ofSingapore Post (SingPost) in May during anIPO in an effort to focus on its core telecommunications services business.
2003: SingTel divested its stakes in Yellow Pages in June, its directory business to CVC Asia Pacific and J.P. Morgan Partners Asia for S$220 million.[22]
2003: SingTel announced that it has appointed Ericsson as the vendor for its 3G network in Singapore in July.
2005: SingTel launches its commercial 3G services in February.
2007:mio TV was launched commercially on 20 July 2007 and began its services on 21 July 2007.
2007: SingTel Generation mio was launched commercially on 9 January 2007 and began its services on 21 January 2007[citation needed]
2008: SingTel and Apple jointly announced that SingTel will be the first mobile operator to launch theiPhone 3G and its services to Singapore in June.[23]
In the month of June, SingTel becomes the title sponsor of the inauguralSingapore Grand Prix in Singapore.
On 10 July 2009, SingTel launched theiPhone 3GS commercially in Singapore.[24]
2012: SingTel was fined $300,000 for breaches of the Service Resiliency Code by the IDA.[29]
Since December 2012, SingTel started providing 4G LTE services across Singapore.
Since 1 August 2013, mio TV was officially renamed SingTel TV.
In 2013 SingTel announced the sale of its entire 30% stake in Warid Telecom (Private) Limited to Warid Telecom Pakistan LLC which took place on 15 March 2013[30]
In 2013 SingTel was fined $180,000 for the disruption of itsmio TV service where 115,000 subscribers were affected while watching the Premier League games. The problems included screen freezing, blurred images and picture distortion that happened on 13 May 2012 from 10:15 pm. Full service quality was resumed at 12:15 am the next day.
In late 2013, SingTel shutdown its Skoob e-book store.[31]
In 2014 SingTel was fined $6 million for its Bukit Panjang fire in the previous year. This is the highest fine imposed on a telco in Singapore.
In August 2014, SingTel announced it was joining forces with five other global companies, including Google, to build a super-fast undersea data cable linking the U.S. and Japan.[32]
In 2014 Bharti Airtel became first telecommunication company to serve 4G internet in India.[citation needed]
On 21 January 2015, Singtel launched its new brand identity, the first in 16 years.[33]
On 19 March 2015, Singtel dismissed all connections with social media agency,Gushcloud. This is after a Singapore bloggerXiaxue, exposed Gushcloud's brief to its "influencers" to execute a negative campaign onM1 andStarhub, both who are direct competitors. Singtel apologised to both companies for the campaign.[34][35]
On 7 April 2015, Singtel revealed it would be acquiring US cyber security firmTrustwave for $810 million, its largest ever acquisition outside the telecoms sector.[36]
In April 2015, Singtel released a newSkype andWhatsApp competitor called Wavee. It allows users to make voice and video calls and send instant messages.[38]
In May 2015, Singtel was issued a 'stern warning' byInfocomm Development Authority (IDA) for a negative marketing campaign against its competitors:M1 Limited andStarhub through a marketing agency, Gushcloud.[39] Singtel was required to "ensure appropriate management oversight and control over its marketing and advertising campaigns".[40]
In March 2020, Singtel announced a US$30 million investment in a new joint venture by Singtel, Thai TelcoAIS and South Korea'sSK Telecom in a gaming company calledStorms.[43]
On 1 October 2020, Singtel announced the appointment of Yuen Kuan Moon as group CEO to replace current chiefChua Sock Koong after her retirement in January 2021.[44]
On 4 December 2020, it was announced that the Singtel and ride-hailing firm Grab consortium had been awarded adigital banking licence and would start operating in 2022.[45]
On 10 June 2022, three employees of Amobee's email marketing division were convicted of federal crimes related to illegally spamming through hijacked IP addresses.[46]
In October 2024, Singtel unveiled RE:AI, a cloud service that aimed to make AI technologies widely accessible to organisations.[47]
In January 2010, Singtel announced it had signed an agreement to join a consortium to build and operate the newSJC (cable system) system (SJC). The construction of the SJC cable system started in April 2011 and became operational in June 2013. The SJC has a length of 8,900 km which could extend up to 9,700 km linking up to seven countries or territories. The SJC is connected with the Unity Cable Network and is designed to deliver the lowest latency connectivity between Asia and the US, specifically from Singapore to Los Angeles.[citation needed]
As of fourth quarter of 2014, Singtel Mobile's 4G outdoor coverage was at 99.41%, ranked first followed by M1's 99.04%, and Starhub's 98.85%.[48]
Singtel signed a partnership with NETSTARS, (a Tokyo-based mobile payment technology company) in March 2019. This will allow travelers to use their home mobile wallets on Singtel's VIA network to pay digitally at stores in Japan.[49]
The Singtel group of companies includes subsidiaries, associated companies, as well as shareholdings in overseas entities. Its mainstay is in the mobile phone industry, where it has a total subscription base of 638 million as of 31 March 2017:[5]
Singtel Mobile Singapore Pte Ltd – operation and provision of cellular mobile telecommunications systems and services, resale of fixed line and broadband services
Areas which had disruptions to the various connectivity services fromM1,StarHub and Singtel due to the 2013 Bukit Panjang Internet Exchange fire.
On 9 October 2013, a fire broke out at one of Singtel's major Internet exchanges atBukit Panjang.[58] The fire started at around 2 p.m. Firemen from theSingapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) responded to the emergency call placed at 2.16pm and extinguished the fires in 20 minutes.[58] After SCDF had cleared the building for access at 6pm, Singtel started repairing the damaged cable infrastructure.[58] The repairs was initially assessed to be done by 10 October 2013, 7am with 33 cables of fibre strands requiring repairs. However, the repairs was slower than expected as it was difficult to identify the affected cables as visual indicators such as colour coding on the cables were rendered unusable and 116 other fibre cables required repairs as well.[59] Connectivity to affected customers was progressively restored as the repairs stretched into the evening.[59]
The damage incurred extensive connectivity issues in theNorth Western areas of Singapore, particularly in Bukit Batok, Bukit Panjang, Bukit Timah, Choa Chu Kang, Kranji, Marsiling, Teck Whye and Woodlands. Singtel reported 100 mobile base stations were affected, disconnecting its mobile service subscribers in the area.[58] It also reported that around 60,000 fixed broadband lines, 46,000 mioTV subscribers, and 30,000 voice lines were also affected.[60] OpenNet also reported that 81 of its fibre cables were damaged, affecting 46,000 fibre connections downstream.[60] Business such asStarHub,M1,DBS, OpenNet andSingapore Pools saw varying levels of disruptions to their services and operations islandwide.[58]
The cables were reconnected on 11 October 2013.[61] However, there were still some subscribers whose connectivity services were still disrupted as of 16 October 2013.[62] StarHub indicated that some of the repaired OpenNet cables, which it relied on to carry its fibre internet services, were not connected properly.[63] Likewise, Singtel reported that several cables required further rectification works.[64] Both offered alternate connectivity solutions to the affected subscribers as a temporary measure while further work took place, with StarHub sending cable modems to its affected subscribers to connect to its then existing coaxial cable network (which could carry Internet services,[65] and was put to an end in June 2019[66]),[63] and Singtel sending mobile broadband dongles.[67] Singtel also announced compensation packages to its affected subscribers of its various services.[68]
Singtel had set up a Board Committee of Inquiry (BCOI) to investigate the fire, withBobby Chin Yoke Choong as the chairman. Additionally, the BCOI would also benchmark current network design and contingency processes against international best practices and standards, and recommend appropriate improvements to prevent future occurrences and strengthen network resilience.[69] Separately, IDA had launched an investigation into the fire as well.[70] Questions were raised in the public on the infrastructure design of the telecommunications network.[71] The fire exposed the fact that Bukit Panjang exchange was a single point of failure as connectivity services of 3 major ISPs were affected due to it, with the affected OpenNet fibre cables affecting a wide area across the nation.[71]
Preliminary findings realised by Singtel on 6 November 2013 indicated that the fire broke out during a maintenance work at one of the lead-in pipes located in the cable chamber. The fire was caused by an employee not following the maintenance procedures as well as the use of an unauthorised blowtorch.[72] Maintenance protocols had since strengthened, limiting maintenance work which required heat to be applied and reinforcing training on safety requirements and operations.[72] The BCOI report, dated 9 December 2013,[73] was released on 17 December 2013.[74][75] The report covered three main areas: fire prevention in exchanges, network reliability and resiliency, as well as public relations and communications.[74] Singtel's board has accepted the BCOI's findings and would implement its recommendations.[74] In Singtel's 2015 annual report, it was reported that the BCOI was satisfied that all the recommendations of the BCOI had been followed up and adequately addressed.[76]
Singtel was later fined $6 million Singapore dollars for the fire incident, it is the largest fine for a telco company in Singapore history. National fibre broadband network builder OpenNet and CityNet - the trustee manager of a Singtel unit that owns OpenNet - have also been fined $200,000 and $300,000, respectively, for failing to comply with safety procedures and restore services promptly.[77]
On 14 March 2015,Xiaxue, a Singapore-based blogger, revealed on her blog instructions fromGushcloud to its network of bloggers to post complaints about the mobile services of Singtel's rivalling mobile service providers,StarHub andM1, on social media, in a marketing effort to drive subscriptions of a new mobile service plan targeted at youths by Singtel.[78] Along with her revelation, there were many samples of Gushcloud's bloggers taking up the offer and posting complaints up on social media services.[78] Upon the release of the complaints, both Starhub and M1 called on IDA to investigate the matter.[79]
Initially denying that it had issued the brief,[80] Singtel issued an apology, of which Starhub and M1 had accepted.[81][82] Singtel also terminated its employee who had worked with Gushcloud on the campaign as the employee did not adhere to Singtel's professional standards and values.[83] At the same time, Singtel ended its relationship with Gushcloud.[83] Vincent Ha, Gushcloud's chief executive, released an apology through the firm on the firm's use of negative messaging and yet criticising Xiaxue's expose for "doing more harm than good to our industry".[84] Xiaxue refuted the statement, saying he was trying to divert blame and calling Gushcloud's actions as "not ethical".[84] Several bloggers involved issued apologies on their platforms as well.[83]
On 12 February 2020, Singtel was fined $9,000 Singapore dollars for a data breach incident involving the My Singtel mobile app, a smartphone application owned by Singtel. The incident began from Singtel encountering a technical issue during its migration to a new billing system in early 2018, resulting in the personal data of 750 mobile subscribers being exposed. Of these, 39 subscribers' personal data were in fact accessed by other subscribers over a period of about 11 hours.[85]
Assistant manager leaking client data and thieving
Pleo Sherwin Cubos, an assistant manager, obtained illegal loan ofSGD$500 from an unlicensed moneylender in January 2020. Due to the high interest rate, Cubos borrowed from other unlicensed moneylenders to repay the loan and his debt eventually snowballed to $3,000. He was later harassed by the moneylenders and one of the moneylender offered to stop his harassment if Cubos was to access Singtel's database to illegally obtained the phone numbers of several Singtel customers. Between 20 February 2020 to 25 April 2020, Cubos illegally accessed 27clients' data in the Singtel database and send the data of six clients to the moneylender. In March and April 2020, Cubos pawned three iPads that belong to Singtel for at least $250 Singapore dollars and spent the money on his personal expenses.
Cubos' supervisor later discovered his offences and filed a police report on 2 May 2020. Cubos was then charged and pleaded guilty to one count each of assisting a loan shark and criminal breach of trust charge on 30 December 2020. He was sentenced to imprisonment for three months and three weeks and fined $30,000 Singapore dollars.[86]
Kelvin Foo Cheek Ann was a retail consultant at the Singtel outlet in Parkway Parade. Between 2014 and July 2017, he obtained Singtel's client data from Singtel's system without authorization and sold the data to his acquaintance, Lee Cheng Yan, as requested. Lee offered him $20 Singapore dollars for each mobile number checked on the system. All clients whose data sold were later received harassment calls, messages, and strangers appearing at their homes and demanding money.
Foo took a total of $180 Singapore dollars of bribes from Lee. Foo pleaded guilty to one charge of corruption, five charges of unauthorized access to Singtel's system, and 10 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.[87]
On 11 February 2021, Singtel issued a statement admitting the company had been attacked by hackers inZero-day attack which resulted in a data breach.[88] Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon issued a public apology regarding the incident, which was caused by a vulnerability in anAccellion file-sharing system used by Singtel. Accellion issued its first alert of the exploits in December 2020, Singtel then applied a series of patches provided by Accellion to resolve the vulnerability. On 23 January 2021, Accellion stated that a new vulnerability had emerged and patches previously applied in December 2020 are ineffective. Singtel immediately took its system offline since. Singtel's attempt to patch the new vulnerability in the FTA system on 30 January 2021 triggered an anomaly alert, and Accellion later informed that the system might have been breached. Singtel's investigations later confirmed the system was breached and identified 20 January 2021 as the occurrence day.[89][90][91]
Data stolen in the breach
Type
Amount
Singtel's customer's data, including NRIC, date of birth, name, contact number and address.
129000 customers
Bank account info of former Singtel employees.
28 employees
Credit card details of staff of a cooperate customers with Singtel mobile lines.
45 staffs
Information of enterprises.
23 enterprises
Amobee executives plead guilty to hijacking IP addresses in order to send illegal spam
On 10 June 2022, three employees of the affiliate marketing platform Amobee pleaded guilty in federal court to hijacking Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to send unsolicited commercial email messages, commonly known as “spam.”[92]
S$16.54 billion (2020)
S$48.96 billion (2020)
