SIMBA Telecom discussion thread

Jurong640

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Keppel, which expects to record an estimated accounting loss of S$222 million, said Simba had submitted the strongest bid among interested parties, and its combination with M1 is expected to create further revenue opportunities.

Simba is wholly owned by Australia-listed Tuas. In a separate statement, Tuas said it is looking to raise at least A$416 million (US$271 million) through a placement and share purchase plan.
 

JAYSCS

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The telco industry will be quite different now. As for older VoLTE 4G devices user, I would hope Simba network will be able to work in future for these devices with its merger with M1 network... Then I would not need to port out to ST/SH when the wallet balance runs out. I wonder will M1 brand and shops will be demised and be replaced with Simba brand? We are in the interesting state of a new era of the telco industry. More to come, ST and SH esp SH have to be very aggressive to stay relevant. 🤔
 

rECKleSSfElla

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The telco industry will be quite different now. As for older VoLTE 4G devices user, I would hope Simba network will be able to work in future for these devices with its merger with M1 network... Then I would not need to port out to ST/SH when the wallet balance runs out. I wonder will M1 brand and shops will be demised and be replaced with Simba brand? We are in the interesting state of a new era of the telco industry. More to come, ST and SH esp SH have to be very aggressive to stay relevant. 🤔
SH all along don't give much freck about existing subscribers. They only care about chasing new signups. I used to have 3 mobile lines + 1 fibre bb + 1 fibre tv and been with them since their SCV days and when i asked about recontract offers the best they could offer me was wavier of caller id charge. LUL.........serve them right for being bottom of the telco pile and i hope they would sink and stink even lower.
 

Jurong640

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SH all along don't give much freck about existing subscribers. They only care about chasing new signups. I used to have 3 mobile lines + 1 fibre bb + 1 fibre tv and been with them since their SCV days and when i asked about recontract offers the best they could offer me was wavier of caller id charge. LUL.........serve them right for being bottom of the telco pile and i hope they would sink and stink even lower.
i'm glad that M1 sometimes, still honor exisiting customers. I renewed with them on their fibre. 10th year into m1 fibre, $32.90/mth for 6gbps after exisiting customers.
 

chari-men

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SH all along don't give much freck about existing subscribers. They only care about chasing new signups. I used to have 3 mobile lines + 1 fibre bb + 1 fibre tv and been with them since their SCV days and when i asked about recontract offers the best they could offer me was wavier of caller id charge. LUL.........serve them right for being bottom of the telco pile and i hope they would sink and stink even lower.
Revenge is sweet lol..
 

chari-men

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i'm glad that M1 sometimes, still honor exisiting customers. I renewed with them on their fibre. 10th year into m1 fibre, $32.90/mth for 6gbps after exisiting customers.
I read M1 became terrible after SPH and Keppel bought them... Used to be M1 customer long ago when 3G data bundle was a huge thing...
 

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If later SIMBA and M1 fully merge network, then there will only be 2 5G networks in SG: ST vs SH+SIMBA.
I don't see how that necessarily follows. SIMBA already has its own separate 5G spectrum allocation.

I think IMDA has a few decisions to make, but assuming IMDA is OK with this acquisition it'll have to decide between two basic spectrum allocation solutions as I see it:
  1. 3 physical 5G (and 4G) networks: Singtel, SIMBA-M1, and StarHub. 5G spectrum from the StarHub-M1 joint venture would be split between SIMBA-M1 and StarHub, and presumably StarHub would inherit the joint venture's infrastructure and operations (atop a slightly trimmed allocation).
  2. 2 physical 5G networks (and 3 physical 4G networks): Singtel and an enlarged SIMBA-M1-StarHub joint venture on 5G; Singtel, StarHub, and a merged SIMBA-M1 on 4G. With some 4G allocations reassigned, presumably.
I think Option #1 is much more likely, but we'll see!
As for older VoLTE 4G devices user, I would hope Simba network will be able to work in future for these devices with its merger with M1 network...
I don't see why it wouldn't. 4G LTE has plenty of life left. All MNOs have 4G spectrum allotments, and they have many years left to run. IMDA will have some decisions to make about how to slice up the spectrum (see above) if the SIMBA-M1 merger goes through, but obviously all the MNOs are going to continue operating 4G services indefinitely.

All the MNOs except SIMBA operate their own in-house subbrands. For Singtel it's GOMO and Heya; for StarHub it's Giga and Eight; and for M1 it's Maxx. (And all except SIMBA have MVNOs wholesaling from them.) The combined SIMBA-M1 MNO can continue offering multi-brand services and serving MVNOs if it wishes.

On edit: Fixed GOMO/Giga. (I had them backwards.)
 
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Moratia

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I don't see how that necessarily follows. SIMBA already has its own separate 5G spectrum allocation.

I think IMDA has a few decisions to make, but assuming IMDA is OK with this acquisition it'll have to decide between two basic spectrum allocation solutions as I see it:
  1. 3 physical 5G (and 4G) networks: Singtel, SIMBA-M1, and StarHub. 5G spectrum from the StarHub-M1 joint venture would be split between SIMBA-M1 and StarHub, and presumably StarHub would inherit the joint venture's infrastructure and operations (atop a slightly trimmed allocation).
  2. 2 physical 5G networks (and 3 physical 4G networks): Singtel and an enlarged SIMBA-M1-StarHub joint venture on 5G; Singtel, StarHub, and a merged SIMBA-M1 on 4G. With some 4G allocations reassigned, presumably.
I think Option #1 is much more likely, but we'll see!

I don't see why it wouldn't. 4G LTE has plenty of life left. All MNOs have 4G spectrum allotments, and they have many years left to run. IMDA will have some decisions to make about how to slice up the spectrum (see above) if the SIMBA-M1 merger goes through, but obviously all the MNOs are going to continue operating 4G services indefinitely.

All the MNOs except SIMBA operate their own in-house subbrands. For Singtel it's Giga and Heya; for StarHub it's GOMO and Eight; and for M1 it's Maxx. (And all except SIMBA have MVNOs wholesaling from them.) The combined SIMBA-M1 MNO can continue offering multi-brand services and serving MVNOs if it wishes.
This guy Telcos..
 

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As a fun little thought exercise, note that Singtel owns Optus, the Australian telecommunications company. So much so that Singtel (the multi-faceted corporation) is much more Australian than Singaporean in terms of its revenues and real business activities. In this SIMBA-M1 corporate transaction Keppel is selling its large controlling interest in M1 (the telecommunications part, not quite all of M1) to Tuas, SIMBA's parent company. Tuas happens to be...an Australian company! Funny how that works.

Hypothetically the government could block this transaction; it has that power. But then the Australian government might get upset and (in extremis) retaliate: the Australian government could require Singtel to divest Optus. Which wouldn't be a great outcome for anyone, would it?

Therefore I think what'll end up happening is that mobile spectrum will be reallocated, and we'll end up with 3 MNOs. We already have 3 MNOs on 5G since StarHub and M1 have a joint 5G venture. A Singtel/SIMBA-M1/StarHub constellation of MNOs would shrink 4G to 3 MNOs but maintain the MNO count on 5G. That seems tolerable to me, but we'll see what the government thinks.

I suppose the government could explore (again) whether there's room for a 4th MNO, another SIMBA basically. But that might have to be a long-term project.🤔
 

BBCWatcher

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I suppose an "Option #3" is possible: no spectrum reallocation. The 5G joint venture continues, and no spectrum is reallocated. Singtel would have its own physical 5G network. StarHub would operate 5G services over the joint venture's physical network, but its joint venture partner would be the combined SIMBA-M1. And SIMBA-M1 would operate its 5G services over a combination of exclusive 5G spectrum allocation (SIMBA'S) and the joint venture's 5G spectrum allocation. But it seems like StarHub wouldn't love that arrangement, not unless StarHub gets its own exclusive 5G spectrum allocation so that the joint venture continues on a more equal footing. (Is that "Option #4"?)

We'll see! All sorts of outcomes are possible, including spectrum access conditions for X years.
 
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froztheart

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As a fun little thought exercise, note that Singtel owns Optus, the Australian telecommunications company. So much so that Singtel (the multi-faceted corporation) is much more Australian than Singaporean in terms of its revenues and real business activities. In this SIMBA-M1 corporate transaction Keppel is selling its large controlling interest in M1 (the telecommunications part, not quite all of M1) to Tuas, SIMBA's parent company. Tuas happens to be...an Australian company! Funny how that works.

Hypothetically the government could block this transaction; it has that power. But then the Australian government might get upset and (in extremis) retaliate: the Australian government could require Singtel to divest Optus. Which wouldn't be a great outcome for anyone, would it?

Therefore I think what'll end up happening is that mobile spectrum will be reallocated, and we'll end up with 3 MNOs. We already have 3 MNOs on 5G since StarHub and M1 have a joint 5G venture. A Singtel/SIMBA-M1/StarHub constellation of MNOs would shrink 4G to 3 MNOs but maintain the MNO count on 5G. That seems tolerable to me, but we'll see what the government thinks.

I suppose the government could explore (again) whether there's room for a 4th MNO, another SIMBA basically. But that might have to be a long-term project.🤔
I would prefer having more competition, history has shown especially in SG that whenever there's buyover/consolidation, the customers always on the losing end.

 

Jurong640

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I would prefer having more competition, history has shown especially in SG that whenever there's buyover/consolidation, the customers always on the losing end.


all good times always has it's ends. But i hope, Simba stay true to themselves. I thin consumers are also super price sensitive. If they do something to increase price, people move.

But then, they also have to consider those currently on M1. Unless they run M1 and Simba concurrently, each target different segments.
 
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