MyRepublic may have lost its bid to be Singapore's fourth licensed telco, but the internet services provider is now looking to gain ground by offering subscribers what it believes they have been lacking--control over their service plans.
The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) officially unveiled its mobile services in the city-state Thursday, introducing three mobile plans that offered 7GB of data at S$35 a month, 12GB at S$55 a month, and 25GB at S$85 a month. Subscribers would not have to sign on a service contract and all plans came bundled with free incoming calls, free caller ID service, as well as 1,000 local talktime.
(Source: MyRepublic)
The launch came 18 months after Australian operator TPG Telecom outbid MyRepublic[1] to snag Singapore's fourth telco license in December 2016. The former had yet to launch its services here, but said earlier this year it was on track to do so[2] in the second half of 2018.
Asked if it was late to a market that already had a mobile penetration rate of 150.8 percent[3], MyRepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues suggested that Singapore was in need of new competition. "If we launched six months earlier, there would have been no difference," he said in an interview with ZDNet.
Rodrigues noted that the current three telcos--Singtel, StarHub, and M1--did not compete with each other "in a meaningful way", while other MVNOs had not made significant impact. Pointing to Circles.Life[4], which launched in May 2016, he said its Facebook page[5] was laden with complaints about its customer service and spotty service delivery.
Rodrigues said his team took note of such developments and wanted to take the time to ensure its service delivery would