The gloves are off. Singapore Telecommunications is determined to fight criticism from rivals that it is not playing fair. Last week, a senior official told a press conference: 'If you can't compete, do not compete. Nobody is going to strip naked and lie down for you.'
In one ring, SingTel is facing off with five global competitors, including AT&T and MCI Worldcom. Last October, they filed a complaint with the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Singapore's telecom regulating body, saying SingTel's charges for locally leased circuits were well above international market rates; and that its marketing of international services was predatory and monopolistic. The global telcos allege SingTel is charging 613 per cent more than international benchmarks for the use of those parts of networks that connect them to their local customers.
Not so, said SingTel, which pointed to an IDA industry survey which found that in three cases, SingTel's charges for local circuits were cheaper than in the United States, and as much as 250 per cent cheaper than in other countries. It also argued that competitors have been free to build their own infrastructure since the market was fully opened in April 2000.
Further, if SingTel has been taking all the risk of building infrastructure, it should be allowed 'to get all the premiums', the company argued.
Meanwhile, in the other ring, SingTel is embroiled in a bitter row with local rival StarHub Cable Vision (SCV). At the heart of the dispute are the terms of an agreement signed in April last year, allowing SCV - whose parent is mobile operator StarHub - to use SingTel's manholes and ducts to run cables to homes. SingTel has appealed the decision, and the dispute is causing delays in hooking up new dwellings to cable TV and broadband services.
The IDA is studying the global firms' complaints and has not ruled out regulatory intervention, if necessary, to ensure prices are competitive. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information, Communications and Arts will have the final say in the SingTel-StarHub dispute.