SingTel Info- communications company. Telecommunications in Singapore goes back to 1879, when Singapore became one of the first cities in Asia to get a telephone service just three years after Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention. Bennet Pell started a private telephone exchange in Singapore with some 50 lines. In 1907, the first local central telephone exchange was opened at Hill Street.
Until the mid- 1950s, telephone services were managed by the British. In 1955, the Singapore Telephone Board (STB) was incorporated as a statutory board. This was followed in 1974 by the merger of STB and the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore (TAS). Until that time, the STB had been responsible for local services, while the TAS had provided international services. Overseas expansion began with the formation of a subsidiary, Singapore Telecom International, in 1988.
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) was incorporated on 1 April 1992 and listed a year later. It was the biggest public listing in Singapore and all citizens were given free SingTel shares through Temasek Holdings, which has remained SingTel’s largest stakeholder. To focus on its core telecommunications services business, SingTel then sold 69 per cent of its existing stake in Singapore Post (SingPost). In the same year, it divested its stake in Yellow Pages, its directory business, for $220 million. SingTel’s revenues exceeded $10 billion for the first time in 2003.
SingTel operates out of two major centres, Singapore and Australia, where it has a wholly owned, listed subsidiary called SingTel Optus. In addition, SingTel has become the second- largest satellite operator in the Asia– Pacific, and has invested in numerous submarine- cable and satellite systems. The group has made profitable investments in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.
SingTel employs more than 19,000 people worldwide. In May 2005, its market capitalization was $43 billion. Its net profit after tax for the year ended 31 March 2006 was $4.16 billion on a turnover of $13.14 billion.