Telecommunications in Singapore

Telecommunications In Singapore

The telecommunication infrastructure of Singapore spans the entire city-state. Its development level is high, with close accessibility to the infrastructure from nearly all inhabited parts of the island and for all of the population, with exceptions. As of 1998, there were almost 55 million phone lines in Singapore, close to 47 million of which also served other telecommunication devices like computers and facsimile machines. Underwater telephone cables have been laid that lead to Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

As of March 2009, there are three cellular phone operators in Singapore serving more than 6.4 million cellular phones. As for internet facilities, as of 2009, there are four major internet service providers (ISPs) in Singapore. By February 2009, there were more than 4.8 million broadband users in Singapore. Howevever, due to the small market and possible market collusion, there have been rising concerns that various ISPs' telecommunication infrastructures being highly under-utilised.

Radio and television stations are all government-owned entities. All eight television channels are owned by MediaCorp; its only other competitor, SPH Mediaworks closed its television channel on 1 January 2005. Due to the proximity of Singapore to Malaysia and Indonesia, almost all radios and television sets in Singapore can pick up broadcast signals from both countries. Private ownership of satellite dishes is banned, but most households have access to the StarHub TV and the SingTel IPTV TV(mio TV) network. As of 1997, there were 1.3 million televisions in Singapore.

All radio stations are operated either by MediaCorp, the SAFRA National Service Association (SAFRA) or SPH UnionWorks. As of 1997, there were 2.5 million radios in Singapore.

The print media is dominated by Singapore Press Holdings and MediaCorp. Singapore Press Holdings publishes flagship newspaper The Straits Times. Daily newspapers are published in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil.