Credit: Kirill Petropavlov (Unsplash)
After missing out on claiming 3.6 GHz mobile band spectrum in Singapore, Australian telco TPG has picked up mmWave spectrum, a move set to see it roll out 5G services across the city state.
TPG told shareholders on 25 June that its Singapore business had been allocated 800 MHz of mmWave spectrum by the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).
The allocation of 800 MHz spectrum across the 26 and 28 GHz bands will allow TPG Singapore to roll out next generation 5G services in support of new consumer and enterprise use cases, the company said.
“The terms of allocation do not require TPG Singapore to incur any material upfront payment for the mmWave spectrum,” TPG told shareholders.
TPG’s hopes to build a 5G network in Singapore met with a snag in April, after the IMDA decided to grant radio frequency spectrum to deploy nationwide 5G networks to two other operators.
The IMDA, which is charged with allocating mobile network radio frequency bandwidth in Singapore, instead named Singtel and the Joint-Venture Consortium (JVCo), formed by StarHub and M1, as the winners of its 5G Call for Proposal (CFP), granting them each one of just two 3.5 GHz band licences in Singapore.
Singtel and JVCo were assigned 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum each, while Singtel, StarHub and M1 were assigned 800MHz of mmWave spectrum each. Despite the setback, the possibility of additional allocation of mmWave spectrum was foreshadowed by TPG in May.
The bandwidth win comes as TPG shareholders vote in favour of the company’s proposed $15 billion merger with fellow carrier Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), with the latter to be pulled into the TPG fold by the end of the month.
The move sets in motion the final steps of the creation of a new Australian telco powerhouse, with the combined company set to become a house of brands featuring Vodafone, TPG, iiNet, Lebara, AAPT and Internode.
