Singaporean telecoms operator Mobile One has launched the first Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network in South-East Asia.
IHS Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | M1 launched its LTE services in June 2011, the first in South East Asia. |
Implications | The service initially, is only available to existing enterprise users. |
Outlook | M1 is set to come under pressure from rival operators SingTel and Starhub, which are both preparing to launch their LTE services by the end of the year. |
Mobile One Singapore (M1), the country's third largest mobile provider, launched its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) service in June 2011, the first to go live in South East Asia. At launch the service will be available in areas within the financial district, including Marina Bay, Shenton Way and Suntec, for which 30 base stations will be deployed. In addition the service is also being rolled out in Beach Road, Chinatown, Padang, Tanjong Pagar and Tanjong Rhu. The operator has scheduled LTE services to be available nationwide by the first quarter of 2012. In May 2011, M1 awarded Huawei with a five-year contract to provide the core network infrastructure; a deal worth 280 million Singapore dollars (USD225.4) (see Singapore: 27 May 2011: M1 Taps Huawei for LTE). The agreement will include the installation of macro base stations, distributed base stations and Evolved Packet Core (EPC). M1's dual-band network operates on the 1.8-GHz and 2.6-GHz frequency bands. At launch the service has a peak downlink speed of 75-Mbps and uplink speed of 37.5-Mbps, though the operator aims to increase the downlink and uplink speeds to 150-Mbps and 75-Mbps by the end of 2012.
Pricing and Services
The LTE service will first be available to enterprise users via their existing mobile broadband plans for SGD59.40 (USD47.90) per month. A greater variety of price plans should be expected upon the expansion of its device range.
Devices
At launch, the only device available to users was a USB modem. Nevertheless, a range of LTE-enabled smartphones and tablets are expected to be made available by the end of 2011.
Outlook and Implications
- M1 Unable to Benefit from Being First to Market: M1 was the first operator to launch LTE services in Singapore, though both SingTel and Starhub are readying their respective launches, thus resulting in a very competitive LTE market by the end of the year. Nevertheless, M1's LTE service at launch was only available to existing enterprise users; the operator will not be able to benefit from being the first to market until it enables both old and new consumer users as well as new enterprise users to utilise the service. M1, like other Singapore operators, is witnessing increased data usage from its users, leading it to phase out its unlimited data tariffs (see Singapore: 1 September 2011: Mobile One Phases Out Unlimited Data). It has consequently introduced LTE services in order to help satisfy the growing data demand.
- Rivals to Enter Market by End-2011: Both of M1's rival mobile operators are set to launch their own LTE services by the end of 2011. SingTel began issuing its existing Premium 21 mobile broadband users with LTE dongles in July 2011 and expects to launch services by the end of the year. The operator will begin its LTE network rollout with 200 base stations in partnership with Ericsson. SingTel has experienced rapid mobile broadband growth; in its first quarter ending June 2011, it reported 975,000 mobile broadband subscribers, up 72% year-on-year (see Singapore: 11 August 2011: SingTel and Telstra Report Mixed Results). Starhub meanwhile, also aims to commercially launch its services by the end of the year. The operator successfully completed trials in 2010 and is now trialling the LTE 1.8-GHz band in order to provide its customers with deeper LTE coverage. Starhub believes the 1.8-GHz band will be of particular benefit to the company as it will provide twice the coverage area than the 2.6-GHz band.