SINGAPORE-The number of mobile-phone subscribers in Singapore is finally shrinking following a cleaning by the major mobile-phone operators. SingTel Mobile and MobileOne (M1) have in the past few months closed dormant prepaid accounts. This resulted in the number of mobile-phone subscribers reducing from a record 3.8 million to 3.076 million.
This is the first time a month-on-month decline has registered since the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore started publishing the numbers. Cellular penetration fell to 76.6 percent from 76.7 percent in September.
Postpaid subscribers increased, with 20,300 signing up in October. SingTel Mobile started its subscriber cleanup in September. It deactivated prepaid customers who had not topped up their cards for more than six months. Many prepaid customers were tourists who had stopped using their cards.
StarHub, Singapore’s third cellular operator, saw growth in prepaid services with prepaid subscribers increasing by 5,000 between June and September 2001. With the country facing recession, it was inevitable that low-end services like prepaid would see a shrinkage.
