Telco

Three bidders, MyRepublic, AirYotta, and TPG Telecom, have formally thrown their names in the hat to become Singapore's fourth telco.

The trio have expressed their interest (EOI) to bid for a chunk of available spectrum that will be on auction this quarter.

Of the three players, only MyRepublic needs no introduction, being an upstart ISP and broadband network operator started in 2011 by former StarHub executive and currently has a subscriber base of 55,000. MyRepublic was previously reported to have faced funding issues for the auction.

AirYotta is an unknown entity that is fronted by former executives of OMGTel, which was backed by Consistel. The latter did not enter the race after a recent misstep when it was fined by the IDA for providing misleading information and committing to an unauthorised network asset sale.

A surprising third player is TPG Telecom, Australia's second largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) and largest Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). TPG is well known in Australia as a very competitive ISP and mobile service provider.

The IDA will now assess the three submissions within the next 20 working days based on their business plans, technical capabilities and whether they are "fit-and-proper persons". An auction of the frequency is expected to be carried out in Oct.

Notably, the street is gearing up for the prospect of a fourth telco in view of the three potential spectrum bidders, which includes a seasoned player (TPG).

Of the three, Maybank KE opines that the industry could be negatively affected if either MyRepublic or TPG Telecom becomes the fourth telco. This would stem from the two players' low-cost, disruptor approach, which could lead to intense competition and ARPU compression.

The house's last calls are Singtel (Hold, TP: $4.41), M1 (Hold, $2.94) and StarHub (Buy, TP: $4.15).