The two companies that have expressed interest in bidding for Singapore’s fourth mobile licence strongly criticised the country’s three major operators for asking the authorities to reduce the amount of premium spectrum being reserved for a new player in an auction early next year.

OMGTel and MyRepublic have both condemned the “self-serving” operators for claiming they need the 900MHz spectrum to be reallocated to them to provide quality 3G coverage, The Straits Times reported. Their existing 900MHz spectrum licences expire in March 2017.

OMGTel director Sallim Abdul Kadir said in an opinion piece in the Times that: “It is disingenuous, if not self-serving, for the three telcos to say that the networks which they have designed and rolled out over the years now cannot meet consumer expectations without further extension of the 900MHz spectrum.”

Singapore’s telecoms regulator in July proposed setting aside 60MHz out of a total of 225MHz of new spectrum at a lower reserve price in a separate auction to be open only to new entrants – including a third of the 900MHz spectrum available. The move by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) is designed to significantly lower the barriers to entry for a fourth mobile player as well as ease the path for potential MVNOs to launch services.

Last month the country’s three mobile operators came out strongly against the government’s measures to encourage a fourth player to join the field and said the small market doesn’t need additional competition. M1, SingTel and StarHub, unsurprisingly, warned separately that service quality in the city state could be reduced with the available spectrum split between four operators.

OMGTel’s Kadir explained that the three operators were expected to provide nationwide coverage using other 3G spectrum they acquired in 2001. The Times quoted him as saying: “If the 900MHz spectrum is reallocated to the telcos for their 3G services, it would be effectively rewarding them for a lack of planning, which would be at the expense of the fourth operator.”

He noted that the three existing players claim the entry of the fourth operator will be disruptive. Kadir said he agrees with that, but disagrees it will be bad for consumers.

Meanwhile, MyRepublic chief executive Malcolm Rodrigues said in an email to the Times that the three operators were wasting spectrum on old technologies and were attempting to minimise the availability of spectrum to a new player.

The country has insufficient mobile data capacity, he claimed, to meet the rising demand for mobile data and that a fourth operator will ensure that the scarce spectrum will be used efficiently.