With a major merger scuppered by an official investigation, four telcos remain locked in a costly war to win over local customers
The foiled deal would also mean Singapore’s mobile network operators – Singtel, StarHub, M1 and Simba – will continue to operate in a cutthroat price war environment while M1’s owners look for new ways to divest, according to experts.
Asha Hemrajani, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said: “Due to Singapore’s small size, the saturated market here and deep price-cutting, mobile network operator market consolidation has to happen, otherwise it is not sustainable.”
If M1 and Simba consolidated, they could have pooled resources to strengthen their investment in capacity, coverage, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, Hemrajani added.
The consolidation of M1 and Simba would have been the first since the government eased regulations in the telco industry in 2000, removing limits on the number of licences and foreign ownership.
M1 and Simba, through their parent companies Keppel and Tuas respectively, jointly announced the consolidation deal in August 2025.
Source: News - South China Morning Post
