Why Singtel is willing to give in to Apple & the iPhone? Answer:3G

It was recently reported that Singtel has finally concluded talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to Singapore and be the first in Asia to do so. Considering the high demand of the iPhone, one doesn’t need to be Einstein to know that Singtel paid a high price for this.

Piracy in Asia has been so common and Singtel would be very naive if they thought that they will be able to force a significant number of subscribers to switch from competing networks just because of the exclusive rights. This is because unlocking the iPhone to work with other networks has evolved to a simple process that merely involves a single click.

So why did they do it? This is my theory…. 3G. Singtel has spent hundreds of millions, if not billions, on building the 3G infrastructure for high speed mobile data transfer but it has not really picked up. Despite various campaigns to boost the use of 3G like providing free video calls, the network is still largely under-utilized. This is where the iPhone comes in.

In the short few months that it has been released, despite only being able to support EDGE which is kind of 2.75G, it has emerged to be the number 1 mobile web surfing device due to its amazing Safari-based browser user interface and its large screen. Also, the iPhone allows the launch of useful applications such as Google Maps with a single touch and this would further encourage people to use services that require data transfer.

Hence when the 3G iPhone releases, if Singtel was able to hand these iPhone to their users, they would be able to better utilize their 3G networks and once usage goes beyond the tipping point, Singtel would then be able to reap the benefits from their entire customer base.

Another question then- so since the deal is almost confirmed, then why not make an official statement? If I may speculate and make a wild guess, I would say that Singtel may very well be awaiting for the announcement of the release of the 3G iPhone and concurrently tell the world of its arrival into Singapore. This could very well happen within 60 days as mentioned by Walt Mossberg from Wall Street Journal.

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