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Singapore Telecommunications History

2009-01-21

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SingTel was Asia's most leading telecommunications company. It has a combined mobile subscriber base of over 200 million customers as of the end of September 2008. Singapore Telecommunication's versatility can be gleaned from its provision of different telecoms services which include IPTV, ISP, mobile phone and fixed line telephony services.

SingTel’s reach has gone beyond the small city-state’s borders as it owns shares in many regional operators, including 100% of the second largest Australian telco, Optus, which was acquired in 2000 from Cable & Wireless and other shareholders of Optus, and Bharti Airtel, the largest telco in India. In the Singapore Exchange, SingTel is the largest company by market capitalization listed, and is majority owned by Temasek Holdings.

History

In 1879, three years after Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone invention, a private telephone exchange in Singapore that had 50 lines was started by Bennet Pell.

It took many years later, specifically in 1955 for the Singapore Telephone Board (STB) to be incorporated as a statutory board with exclusive rights to operate telephone service within Singapore. What followed was a merger of STB and Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS) in 1974. Up until that time, STB was responsible for local services, while TAS provided international services. 1982 saw the merger of the Postal Department with Telecoms.

SingTel was incorporated just about the early 1990s, specifically in March 1992. The company then became publicly listed in October 1993.

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