M1 Limited (commonly known as M1; formerly MobileOne) is a Singaporean
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
company and one of the major telcos operating in the country. M1 was founded in 1994 and traded on the
Singapore Exchange
The Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) is a Singaporean investment holding company that provides different services related to securities and derivatives trading and others. SGX is also a member of the World Federation of Exchanges and the Asian ...
from 2002 to 2019. M1 is a subsidiary of the
Keppel Corporation
Keppel Corporation (also known as Keppel Corp) is a Singaporean conglomerate headquartered in Keppel Bay Tower, HarbourFront. The company consists of several affiliated businesses that specialises in offshore & marine, property, infrastructure ...
and
Singapore Press Holdings
Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPHL) was an organisation with businesses in property and aged care in Singapore. Since its takeover by Cuscaden Peak in 2022, it has been renamed Cuscaden Peak Investments.
Prior to 1 December 2021, SPHL was i ...
through their joint venture, Konnectivity.
History
1994–2002: Early years
M1 was founded as a consortium known as MobileOne
in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
in 1994.
Cable & Wireless plc
Cable & Wireless plc was a British telecommunications company. In the mid-1980s, it became the first company in the UK to offer an alternative telephone service to British Telecom (via subsidiary Mercury Communications). The company later off ...
,
Hong Kong Telecom
HKT Limited (), also known as Hong Kong Telecom (), is one of the largest telecommunications companies of Hong Kong. It has a dominant position in fixed-line, mobile, IDD and broadband services in Hong Kong. HKT Group is a subsidiary of PCCW sin ...
,
Keppel Telecommunications, and
Singapore Press Holdings
Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPHL) was an organisation with businesses in property and aged care in Singapore. Since its takeover by Cuscaden Peak in 2022, it has been renamed Cuscaden Peak Investments.
Prior to 1 December 2021, SPHL was i ...
all owned stake in the company at its outset. In May 1995, it became the first firm (outside of government-owned
Singtel
Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly known as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and one of the four major telcos operating in the country. The company is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore with ...
) to acquire a cellular licence and one of three to receive a
paging
In computer operating systems, memory paging is a memory management scheme by which a computer stores and retrieves data from secondary storage for use in main memory. In this scheme, the operating system retrieves data from secondary storage ...
licence from the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore.
The company's first CEO, Neil Montefiore, was appointed in 1996.
In January 1997 in the lead-up to the deregulation of the
telecommunications industry in Singapore, MobileOne offered a free trial of its cellular service to build market share.
On 1 April 1997, MobileOne was officially allowed to conduct business as a mobile phone operator.
By June 1998, the company had a valuation of $1 billion (
SGD SGD is the ISO 4217 code of the Singapore dollar, the currency of Singapore.
SGD or sgd can also mean:
* Saccharomyces Genome Database, a yeast database
* Sargodha, a Pakistani city
* Secure global desktop, software by Tarantella, subsequently bou ...
).
In 2000, MobileOne launched its own
GPRS
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...
service, becoming the first telecom company in Singapore to do so.
Over the course of 2000 and 2001,
MobileOne
M1 Limited (commonly known as M1; formerly MobileOne) is a Singaporean telecommunications company and one of the major telcos operating in the country. M1 was founded in 1994 and traded on the Singapore Exchange from 2002 to 2019. M1 is a subsi ...
transferred all of its customers from a
CDMA
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...
network to a
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...
-
1800 network.
In 2001, the firm signed an agreement with
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
to help expand its GSM network. It had around 880,000 subscribers at that time, accounting for around one-third of the mobile phone market in Singapore. In July 2002, M1 signed another agreement with Nokia which would see the latter supply M1's nationwide
MMS MMS may refer to:
Science and technology Network communication protocols
* Multimedia Messaging Service for mobile phones
* Microsoft Media Server, a content-streaming protocol (mms://)
* Manufacturing Message Specification for real time proces ...
system, expanding its future
3G capabilities.
2002–2009: IPO, ventures into 3G and broadband
MobileOne had its
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in December 2002 and began trading on the
Singapore Exchange
The Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) is a Singaporean investment holding company that provides different services related to securities and derivatives trading and others. SGX is also a member of the World Federation of Exchanges and the Asian ...
under the stock ticker symbol, MONE.
In May 2004, M1 introduced POINT, a
music recognition service.
Later that year, MobileOne enlisted Taiwanese boy band,
5566, to promote the company's prepaid "M Card" in a series of ads.
2004 also saw M1 partner with
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
on an image search feature
and begin
push-to-talk
Push-to-talk (PTT), also known as press-to-transmit, is a method of having conversations or talking on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode.
H ...
trials with enterprise customers in Singapore.
In February 2005, the company introduced prepaid cards that allowed for free incoming calls.
It also launched its consumer 3G services, becoming the first Singapore-based operator to do so.
In August 2005, SunShare Investments–a joint venture between
Telekom Malaysia
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) is a Malaysian telecommunications company founded in 1984. Beginning as the national telecommunications company for fixed line, radio and television broadcasting services, it has evolved to become the country's larg ...
and
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
's government-run investment arm,
Khazanah Nasional
Khazanah Nasional Berhad is the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Malaysia, entrusted with growing the nation's long-term wealth via distinct commercial and strategic objectives. Khazanah's commercial objective is to grow financial as ...
–acquired a 12.06% stake in M1 from Great Eastern Telecommunications (a separate joint venture with Cable & Wireless and
PCCW
PCCW Limited (formerly known as Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited) is a Hong Kong-based information and communications technology (ICT) company.
The company is the majority owner of telecommunications company HKT Limited, and also holds a maj ...
as owners). With those shares, SunShare increased its ownership stake in M1 to 17.7%.
By March 2006, SunShare's stake had grown again to 27.55%.
In December 2006, MobileOne introduced Singapore's first
3.5G wireless broadband service. Known as M1 Broadband, the service used
High Speed Downlink Packet Access
High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunic ...
(HSDPA) technology to achieve internet connection speeds of up to 3.6 Mbit/s.
In April 2008, Telekom Malaysia (TM) demerged from one of its mobile and telecom divisions,
Axiata
Axiata Group Berhad, commonly known as Axiata, formerly known as TM International Berhad, is a Malaysian multinational telecommunications conglomerate with extensive operations in Asia.
The group
Axiata's primary business is in investment h ...
. The M1 shares that TM held through its SunShare Investments arm were then diverted to Axiata.
In August of that year, the company entered into the fixed broadband sector. M1 Fixed Broadband used
StarHub
StarHub Limited, most commonly known as just Starhub, is a Singaporean multinational telecommunications conglomerate and one of the major telcos operating in the country. Founded in 1998, it is listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
History ...
Cable's existing open access network to connect its service.
In January 2009, it was announced that Neil Montefiore would step down as CEO of MobileOne.
CFO
The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
Karen Kooi was named acting CEO before being appointed to the position permanently in April 2009.
In 2009, M1 began offering prepaid 3G broadband service
and instituted a mobile handset rental programme called "Take3."
In September 2009, M1 acquired Singaporean
internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
, Qala, with the goal of entering the corporate fixed broadband market.
The acquisition of Qala also allowed the company to begin offering
ADSL
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...
broadband.
It also launched a
near-field communication
Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be u ...
NFC pilot programme in a partnership with
Citibank
Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...
and
Visa
Visa most commonly refers to:
*Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company
** Visa Debit card issued by the above company
** Visa Electron, a debit card
** Visa Plus, an interbank network
*Travel visa, a document that allows ...
. It also began offering prepaid 3G broadband service and instituted a mobile handset rental programme called "Take3." In September 2009, M1 acquired Singaporean
internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
, Qala, with the goal of entering the corporate fixed broadband market. The acquisition of Qala also allowed the company to begin offering
ADSL
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...
broadband.
2010–2017: Rebrand as M1, introduction of LTE and NB-IoT
In April 2010, MobileOne officially changed its name to M1.
In September of that year, M1 became the first Singaporean company to announce a 1 Gbit/s fibre optic internet plan. It also began offering four other internet plans to businesses and consumers.
In June 2011, M1 launched the first commercial
LTE service in Southeast Asia, with coverage initially centered on the financial district.
In April 2013, M1 announced that it would spend up to $85 million to modernise its mobile networks, as well as to deploy a nationwide 3G radio network on the 900 MHz frequency band. The project was completed by the first quarter of 2014.
In 2015, M1 was named the service provider of the Home Access programme by the
Infocomm Development Authority Of Singapore
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is a statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI).
History
Following the passing of the Info-communications Media Development Authority Bill in Parliame ...
, which would see the company offer subsidised rates for broadband internet access to low-income households.
In April that year, it began offering
Voice over LTE
Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is an LTE high-speed wireless communication standard for mobile phones and data terminals, including Internet of things (IoT) devices and wearables. VoLTE has up to three times more voice and data capacity than older 3G U ...
(VoLTE) on its 3G and 4G networks.
The following month, M1 acquired a 15% stake in the
Oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...
telecom company, TeO, through its subsidiary, M1 TeliNet.
In June 2015, M1 launched a cashless, mobile
point of sale
The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...
service in collaboration with
Mastercard,
CIMB
CIMB Group Holdings Berhad () is a Malaysian universal bank headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and operating in high growth economies in ASEAN. CIMB Group is an indigenous ASEAN investment bank. CIMB has a wide retail branch network with 1,080 bran ...
, and
Wirecard
Wirecard AG is an insolvent German payment processor and financial services provider whose former CEO, COO, two board members, and other executives have been arrested or otherwise implicated in criminal proceedings. In June 2020, the company a ...
. The service allows small businesses to accept credit, debit, and prepaid card payments using their smartphones or tablets.
M1 entered into an agreement in July 2015 to host the postpaid
mobile virtual network operator
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...
(MVNO), Liberty Wireless, on its network under the brand name Circles Asia.
In April 2017, M1's 2G network (along with all other 2G networks in Singapore) was shut down.
In early 2016, M1 achieved 4G peak download speeds of more than 1Gbit/s and peak upload speeds in excess of 130Mbit/s through a collaboration with
Huawei
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
. In March of that year, M1 introduced an NFC-enabled service that would allow users to pay transit fares with their smartphones. It also began providing Wi-Fi for M1 customers on public transit vehicles. In April 2017, M1's 2G network (along with all other 2G networks in Singapore) was shut down. That month, M1 also introduced a digital mobile
remittance
A remittance is a non-commercial transfer of money by a foreign worker, a member of a diaspora community, or a citizen with familial ties abroad, for household income in their home country or homeland. Money sent home by migrants competes wit ...
service. In August 2017, M1 launched Southeast Asia's first commercial nationwide
narrowband
Narrowband signals are signals that occupy a narrow range of frequencies or that have a small fractional bandwidth. In the audio spectrum, narrowband sounds are sounds that occupy a narrow range of frequencies. In telephony, narrowband is usua ...
Internet of Things
The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...
(
NB-IoT
Narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT) is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP for cellular devices and services. The specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro), in June 2016. Othe ...
) network. Throughout 2017 and 2018, M1 worked with both Huawei and Nokia on a series of
5G trials, one of which used M1's NB-IoT network. In March 2018, M1 announced a partnership with Keppel Electric that would see the two entities bundling price packages for mobile and electricity services in preparation of the launch of the Open Electricity Market in Singapore in 2019.
2018–present: Keppel, SPH, delisting, and 5G
Karen Kooi officially stepped down as CEO of M1 in 2018 and was replaced by former Pareteum Asia CEO, Manjot Singh Mann. Also that month, M1 agreed to provide a wireless private network that would cover all of Singapore's
Jurong Port
Jurong Port Pte Ltd is a port operator headquartered in Singapore. Jurong Port, which operates the only multi-purpose port in Singapore, handles bulk, break-bulk and containerised cargo. It handled over 40,000 vessel-calls annually in 2019.
Th ...
, and it made digital
eSIM services available on select
iPhones on its network for the first time.
In February 2019, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and the Keppel Corporation (through their joint venture, Konnectivity Ltd) completed a buyout of Axiata's shares in M1, which totaled 28.7%.
Prior to the buyout, SPH held a 13.45% stake in M1 and Keppel had a 19.33% stake.
By the following month, Konnectivity held a 94.55% stake in M1 and exercised its right to purchase the remaining shares in the company. It indicated at the time that it would delist M1 from the Singapore Exchange.
M1 was officially delisted in April 2019.
In January 2020, it was announced that M1 and fellow telecommunications company, StarHub, would submit a joint bid for one of four 5G licences to be administered by the
Infocomm Media Development Authority
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is a statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI).
History
Following the passing of the Info-communications Media Development Authority Bill in Parliame ...
(IMDA).
The IMDA approved the joint bid along with the solo bid submitted by Singtel in April 2020. M1 will use Nokia's Core platform to build out its 5G network and provide nationwide 5G coverage by 2025.
By 2021, 90 percent of M1's back-end system had been shifted to the
cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
, and its 200 databases had been removed in favor of a large "
data lake
A data lake is a system or repository of data stored in its natural/raw format, usually object blobs or files. A data lake is usually a single store of data including raw copies of source system data, sensor data, social data etc., and transforme ...
." According to the company, this technological shift was part of an effort to provide more flexibility to create new services and engage consumers. In February of that year, the company announced that it would be offering three new mobile plans with customisable options.
This was part of a rebrand where the company introduce a new logo, expand the functionality of its "My M1+" mobile app, and focus on becoming "Singapore's first digital network operator." It also launched the "Be" campaign, a marketing effort highlighting seven Singaporeans and their individuality.
Products and services
M1 is one of the four major full service communications providers in Singapore. It offers a suite of mobile voice-and-data communication services over its 3G/3.5G/4G/LTE-A network, including international-call services to both mobile- and fixed-line customers. These include SMS, MMS, WAP, GPRS, 3G, 3.5G and 4G.
It also offers prepaid mobile services, including prepaid data plans, under its M Card brand.
It is one of the operators in Singapore to offer a prepaid 4G service.
As of 2021, M1 currently offers three customisable mobile plans and offers non-standalone access to 5G networks in select areas throughout Singapore. Its three plans are known as Bespoke Contract, Bespoke SIM, and Bespoke Flexi, all of which allow the customer to build a personalised plan with specific price points, data, and talk time. The Bespoke Contract plan allows customers to enter into a contract with a set monthly price for up to two years. The Bespoke SIM and Bespoke Flexi plans are non-contract plans and can be adjusted once a month at no charge. The Bespoke SIM plan provides SIM cards to users with existing handsets while the Bespoke Flexi plan combines both a SIM card and a handset in the monthly price.
References
External
*
Yahoo Finance Stock Quote
{{Asia Mobility Initiative
Mobile phone companies of Singapore
Telecommunications companies of Singapore
Internet in Singapore
Telecommunications companies established in 1997
1997 establishments in Singapore
Vodafone
Internet service providers of Singapore
Singapore Press Holdings
Singaporean brands
Companies formerly listed on the Singapore Exchange