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Singapore Telecommunications Limited, (SingTel) is headquartered in Singapore and has more than 130 years of operating experience. It has played a pivotal role in the country’s development as a major communications hub. With a combined mobile subscriber base of 500 million customers from its own operations as well as its regional associates in 25 countries as of March 2014, SingTel is one of the largest mobile network operators in Singapore and ranks midst the 20 to 30 largest names in the world. Until 1995, SingTel was known as Telecommunications Equipment. Some of the major things the company provides are ISP (Internet Service Provider) services, IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) services, mobile phones and fixed-line telephone services. In 2000, SingTel acquired 100 per cent shares of Optus, the second largest Australian telecommunication brand, and 30.8 per cent of shares of Bharti Airtel, the largest Indian telecommunication brand. SingTel’s majority stake is in the hands of the investment arm of the government of Singapore, Tamasek Holdings. It also happens to be the largest company, when measured as per market capitalization, which is listed on the Singapore Exchange. But apart from this SingTel is also an active investor in innovation companies which is done through one of its subsidiaries, SingTel Innov8 which was founded in 2011.
Reaching More Than A 100 Countries
It has over 40 offices in more than 20 countries across the Middle East, the USA, Asia Pacific and Europe. It uses its extensive data network and strong infrastructure for deploying its services. SingTel’s international submarine cable network provides connections from Singapore to more than 100 countries. It is a major investor in many of the world’s submarine cable systems, such as South-East Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 3 Cable Network, South-East Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 4Cable Network, Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2, China-US, Southern Cross Cable Network and Unity Cable Network; Unity Cable Network was commissioned in March 2010. In January 2010 the company announced the signing of an agreement to join a consortium to build and operate the new SJC system (South-East Asia Japan Cable). The construction of the SJC system commenced in mid 2011 and became operational in mid 2013. The total length of SJC is of 8,900 kilometers which can be extended up to 9,700 kilometers linking around seven countries. The SJC is interconnected seamlessly with the Unity Cable Network and is designed to deliver the lowest latency connectivity between Asia and the US, specifically from Singapore to Los Angeles.
Breaking Barriers, Building Bonds
SingTel’s core values justify its desire to “create a unity of purpose across the Group. They reflect our common aspiration to foster a performance-based culture that is open and innovative, and that promotes mutual trust and engagement.” It envisions becoming Asia Pacific’s best multimedia solutions group which enables communication by “breaking barriers, building bonds.” At SingTel creating and delivering value to its customers, employees and shareholders is fundamental to its business. SingTel endeavours to listen to, and connect with, customers and treat them with dignity and respect. “By understanding and anticipating their needs, we make it easy for our customers to do business with us. We aim to offer them value and quality services to enrich lives and enhance business success,” says a company representative. To commend the hardwork done by SingTel, it has been felicitated with many awards like Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Award (APICTA Award) 2014; Metro Ethernet Forum 2014 Ethernet Excellence Award; 2014 Global Aon Hewitt Top Companies for Leaders; Aegis Graham Bell 2014 Award for innovation in telecom network infrastructure; and NetworkWorld Asia Readers’ Choice Product Excellence Award in the managed infrastructure and security services category.
A Wide Member Base
The SingTel group is a collection of various subsidiaries, associated companies, as well as shareholdings in overseas entities. However, its primary interests lie in the mobile phone industry which has a total subscription base of 426 million as of 2013. Other members of the SingTel group are SingNet, SingTel’s wholly owned ISP wing; Lankacom, an ISP company in Sri Lanka; SingTel Digital Media Pte Ltd (STDM) which owns the content portal – insing.com; NCS (National Computer Systems Pte Limited), an information technology and communications engineering services provider and Amobee, a wholly owned mobile advertising company. In August 2014, SingTel announced it was joining forces with five other global companies, including Google, to build a super-fast undersea data cable linking the USA and Japan.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Singtel is the largest listed Singapore Company on the Singapore Exchange by market capitalization that has a vast network of offices in countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, in Europe, Australia and the USA, employing more than 22,000 staff worldwide.
- The Company received The World Communications Award by User’s Choice & the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA Awards) in 2014.
- They were honoured with Asia Communications Awards 2014 for the Best Brand Campaign (Hawker Heroes) & Project of the Year (G-Cloud).
