Singapore

As a major industrial and training center, Singapore is heavily invested (per capita) in all areas of telecommunications infrastructure, and with up to two new telephone companies in the year 2000 and an ambitious data-networking program, their telecommunication density should grow. Singapore has high rate of leased circuits to/from the US. Leased circuits tend to be used for data communication and switched circuits for conversation.

The Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (now the Infocomm Development Authority) has led major efforts in providing greater quality, availability and more competitive prices for Internet access. Today, the markets for the provision of public Internet access services and value-added resellers have been liberalized. This liberalization has created greater competition in network services and allowed parties such as cyber cafés and hotels to provide value-added Internet services on top of basic Internet access.

On August 1999, TAS passed regulations to liberalize the transmission of value-added network (VAN) traffic over the Internet. VAN operators, who provide their subscribers with value-added functions, will now have the alternative of carrying their VAN traffic over the Internet in addition to via the Public Switched Telecommunication Network (PSTN) or leased circuits. [7] This liberalization will enable VAN operators to provide a wider range of lower cost VAN services to users through harnessing the pervasiveness of the Internet.

Singapore has direct high-speed Internet links to regional countries, the United States and Europe. The Singapore Telecom Internet Exchange is an Asian Internet Hub, which connects more than 22 countries in the Asia-Pacific Rim. Singapore also has five 45Mbps direct connections to the USA Internet backbone, a 2Mbps direct connection to the European Internet backbone and high-speed links to Australia and China.

Major players in telecommunications

SingTel is Asia's leading communications company with a comprehensive portfolio of services that include voice and data services over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms. The group spends about S$900 million each year to further upgrade its infrastructure. To serve its customers better, SingTel has established operations in 19 cities in 14 countries and territories across the globe including China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

SingTel is expanding rapidly into overseas markets, with current investments of more than S$5 billion (US$2.9 billion) in 100 joint ventures and associated companies in over 20 countries and territories. Its major investments include Belgacom of Belgium, Advanced Info Service of Thailand, New Century Infocomm of Taiwan, Bharti Telecom Group of India and Globe Telecom of the Philippines. Overseas investments currently contribute 15 per cent of the Group's pre-tax profit, with a proportionate share of the Group's turnover of almost one quarter. The Group has subsidiaries whose businesses include mobile phone and paging services, publishing, consultancy, postal services, investments, repair of submarine cables and sale of telecommunications equipment.

Mobile Commerce
M-commerce is very much in its infancy in Singapore, though many merchants are already starting to look at WAP, and SMS-based applications as an alternative marketing channel. There are at least a few regions in Singapore - Holland Village, Siglap, Serangoon and Suntec City, where merchants are WAP ready.

On the consumer end, the number of mobile subscribers and the availability of Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) handsets, and in general, GSM handsets have led to increased popularity of Short Message Services (SMS) and WAP. Wireless application providers, mobile operators, and other players in the m-commerce value chain have been quick to serve the need of these consumers by bringing applications to the mass-market. [8]

Internet activity

· The number of subscribers reached 1.09 million at the end of last year; this will grow to 1.82 million by the end of 2004.

Although figures vary this table is the estimated Internet usage compared to population for late 1999

Country	Population in Millions	Internet User Base in Thousands	Percent Usage
Japan	125	18,000	14.39
China	1,200	4,000	0.33
South Korea	45	3,100	6.89
Taiwan	21	3,010	14.40
Hong Kong	6	850	14.41
Malaysia	20	600	2.99
Singapore	3	500	17.86
Philippines	68	320	0.47
Thailand	59	131	0.22
Indonesia	198	80	0.04
Vietnam	75	6	0.01

China will experience average annual compound growth in subscribers through to 2004 of 36.6%

Indonesia will have only 5.1 million subscribers in 2004 out of a projected population of 220 million people.

Japan is Asia Pacific's biggest Internet market and will continue to be so hitting 64.5 million in 2004.