Bid for Spore telecom

Bid for Spore telecom

SINGAPORE (AFP): Three consortiums comprising Singaporean and
foreign partners have submitted tenders to operate full
telecommunication services in Singapore from April 2000, industry
regulators said over the weekend.

The Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS), which had
set a May 31 deadline for tenders, said it will now carry out a
pre-qualification exercise to weed out unsuitable bidders and
produce a shortlist.

The TAS earlier said it would license up to two new players to
compete in basic services against giant Singapore
Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel).

The first bidding consortium, called TelcomOne, includes
Singapore's Keppel Telecoms Pte. Ltd. and publisher Singapore
Press Holdings Ltd., partnered with Britain's Cable and Wireless
Pte. and Hong Kong Telecom Ltd.

The TelcomOne partners are behind MobileOne (Asia) Pte. Ltd.
or M1, a cellular phone and pager operator which has enjoyed
strong sales since its launch on April 1, when competition in
mobile communications began here.