Singapore’s new fourth mobile operator TPG Telecom (Singapore) have its full-blown commercial service, including a SIM-only data plan for SGD10 (USD7) per month for 50GB of downloads – currently the cheapest plan on offer in the city-state.
The plan also comes with 300 local call minutes, 30 SMS and from May, free 1GB roaming to ‘selected countries’ and, according to acting CEO Richard Tan, is ‘targeted at consumers such as parents buying a first SIM card for their children, users who use a second or third smartphone device, and foreign workers’.
Additional service plans are expected to be rolled out in Q2 2020, he added, although he stopped short of providing details. ‘What we want today is just to come out with a simple and easy to understand plan that provides the best value for customers,’ Mr Tan is quoted as saying, noting that ‘There will be more and more devices that require always-on connections, and that’s where we see the opportunity for Singapore customers to try out our services for the additional devices they have.’
The new fourth telco’s commercial launch signals the end to its free trial programme which it implemented in December 2018 and which has attracted more than 400,000 subscriptions. Aussie-owned TPG says that, having reduced the duration of its free trial from twelve months to six in October 2019 ahead of its 2020 commercial launch, existing users will now be asked to allow their plan to run its course and then choose to switch to the SGD10 offer if they wish. All users will be able to port their mobile numbers over to the new plan.
Going forward, TPG Telecom (Singapore) has until January 2022 to meet the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA’s) service coverage standard for MRT tunnels. ‘Coverage in the rail tunnels is progressing well and coming up system by system. We are definitely on track to meet IMDA’s target by December 2021,’ Tan said.