S'pore telcos to spend $1.6b

S'pore telcos to spend $1.6b

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): Capital investment in Singapore's telecommunications sector is likely to exceed S$3 billion (US$1.6 billion) over the next five or six years, Yeo Cheow Tong, minister for communications and information technology said Monday.

Yeo was speaking at the second Asia Pacific Telecommunications and Information Technology Forum and Exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia.

He said: "Seventy-five percent of (this investment) will be realized within the next 2-3 years," and added that the surge in investment will create around 5,000 new jobs by the end of the year.

Singapore liberalized its telecommunications market in April last year and over 200 licenses have been awarded to telecommunications companies since.

Yeo said market liberalization has led to a high mobile phone penetration rate of 70 percent of the population, and Internet dial-up penetration has reached 50 percent.