SINGAPORE-Singapore operator MobileOne (M1) accused rivals SingTel Mobile and StarHub of efforts to lure away its CDMA customers. An advertising war has been under way, with SingTel Mobile and StarHub taking out full-page advertisements in the Straits Times extolling the virtues of their GSM services. The advertisements are targeted at M1’s 55,000 CDMA customers.
M1’s CDMA customers are left with an uncertain future, because the network presently occupies 2.5 megahertz of the third-generation (3G) spectrum that will be auctioned off early next year. M1 will have to quit its allotted spectrum slot.
M1 said it is looking to move its customers to other CDMA-based technologies or out of CDMA altogether and into a GSM-based system. M1 said the advantage of moving users out of CDMA to a GSM-based system is the ease of accessing 3G services in the future.
