LIVE FROM LTE ASIA 2014, SINGAPORE: Singapore may require more than 1GHz of extra spectrum for mobile broadband by 2020, said Aileen Chia, IDA’s deputy director general (telecoms and post). “It’s not just a local issue, but a global one.”
In addition to exploring the release of additional spectrum, Chia (pictured, below) said in her keynote at LTE Asia on Wednesday that the country’s agency is reviewing complementary methods of delivering the necessary capacity to keep up with demand.
“We are planning to facilitate the deployment of a heterogeneous network comprising mobile networks, Wi-Fi and small cell networks.”
She said that as a mature market, the IDA is looking at enhancing the vibrancy of Singapore’s mobile sector through the entry of new mobile service providers. “We first want to understand the possible mechanisms needed to evaluate and facilitate new entries.”
The IDA wants to encourage newcomers and make network sharing easier, but needs to balance that with the needs to the existing players, she said.
It is still studying the responses from a public consultation.
Chia also reminded the audience of its plan announced earlier this year to release TV white space, making available about 180MHz of underutilised spectrum. The new regulation is expected to go into effect in November.
Giving a market overview, she noted that Singapore has a mobile penetration of 155 per cent (8.2 million connections) and 78 per cent of the market has a smartphone. Now 65 per cent of users have 3G, 31 per cent 4G and less than 5 per cent 2G.
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