Is gung-ho MyRepublic all set to disrupt Singapore’s mobile market?

A key difference sets it apart from other failed ventures.

History has not been kind to potential fourth entrants to Singapore’s saturated mobile market. In 2002, for instance, Singtel’s ill-fated MVNO JV with Virgin Group closed down within nine months after suffering a $50m loss each, even though the country’s mobile penetration was only a relatively low 75%.

According to Maybank Kim Eng, it has long been the conventional wisdom that the Singapore mobile market is too saturated to sustain a fourth operator, with mobile penetration rate now hovering at 150%.

However, Maybank Kim Eng believes that MyRepublic offers a unique difference that could help steer it away from Virgin Mobile’s failure.

Unlike Virgin, MyRepublic is a Singapore company managed by former local employees of the incumbents. Its Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Rodrigues and Chief Commercial Officer KC Lai were both from StarHub, while Managing Director Yap Yong Teck was from M1.

The report also noted that MyRepublic has proven itself a viable competitor in fibre broadband, and it also employs low-cost cloud infrastructure to host all its support systems and appears to be well-funded.

Although MyRepublic will have to grapple with many hurdles before it achieves its dream of becoming the country’s fourth telco, Maybank Kim Eng stated that MyRepublic can use either low pricing or offer unlimited data as its market-disruption levers, defying the incumbents’ shift away from unlimited data to tiered data.

“To be clear, MyRepublic has said it is targeting only 10-15% of the mobile market. However, we fear the way it reaches that share will be disruptive for M1, which has no bundling proposition to protect itself. In the longer term, MyRepublic is probably eyeing Singapore’s plans for the Internet of Things (IOT) which will see a lot more connected devices other than smartphones and tablets. Part of making IOT a reality in Singapore is the IDA’s proposed HetNet, which will allow users to automatically and seamlessly hook up to the best or fastest network available, be it 3G, 4G or WiFi,” stated the report.