SINGAPORE Singapore Telecommunications (SINGTEL) said Wednesday it will spend 420 million Singapore dollars ($240 million) on upgrading and expanding its domestic mobile and fixed line networks over the next 12-18 months.
The outlay is part of a multi-billion dollar 10-year upgrade program, AFP quoted the company as saying in a statement.
The bulk of the initial spending will go toward broadband access and high-speed Internet services for corporate and residential users, and mobile data services on the general packet radio service (GPRS) platform.
SINGTEL is preparing to bid for a third-generation (3G) license in Singapore, with a reserve price of 150 million Singapore dollars, and estimates it will spend 1.3 billion Singapore dollars over the next 10 years to roll out a 3G infrastructure.
Expanding capacity for broadband access, improving existing domestic services and installing transmission equipment in the fixed line network will cost another 270 million dollars, the statement said.
The target is to increase SINGTEL's broadband access to more than 200,000 lines by end 2001.
"Presently, data-related communications contribute about 21 percent to SINGTEL's revenue.
This is expected to exceed international telephone, the largest revenue contributor at 26 percent, in two to three years," SINGTEL's Executive Vice President (network) Bill Hope said.