Comprehensive SWOT Analysis of SingTel: Market Position and Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of SingTel, a prominent telecommunications company in Singapore. The analysis examines SingTel's market-leading position, diverse assets, and geographically diverse operations, highlighting its strengths. Weaknesses such as early-stage investments and the mature Singaporean telecom market are also discussed. The report identifies opportunities like data monetization, cross-selling potential, and the development of new services. Threats include the tightly regulated industry, competition from StarHub and Telstra, and risks related to acquisitions. The analysis considers the company's competitive environment, including the impact of rivals like StarHub and Telstra. The report draws on multiple resources to support its findings. This analysis offers insights into SingTel's strategic challenges and potential for growth in the telecommunications sector. Students can access past papers and assignments on Desklib for further study.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
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Company background
SingTel is one of the very well known companies in Singapore that is the provider of all
the different telecommunication services. The company has been able to develop a very strong
base for their clients because they provide the services in many different places like that of
Vietnam, Malaysia, Vietnam and also many other such places. The company operates with 4.l
million subscribers with the help of its subsidiaries and a combined subscriber base of nearly 640
million people in 2017. The company SingTel evaluates market share in Singapore with 47
percent of the mobile market, a fixed-line market, and over-all 43 percent of the broadband
connections in Singapore. They try to ensure that they are being able to provide the channels and
also the different other services at a very affordable price so that they can work over their total
number of subscribers.
On the other hand, is also one of the other such wells has known telecommunication
service providers of Singapore that tries to provide the best possible network services to their
targeted customers or their subscribers1. However, this is must be ensured that the company also
deals in similar kinds of products like services like Mobile Network Services, Digital Cable
Services, and Internet service for both consumer and corporate markets. Both these companies
try their best to make sure that they can provide the maximum number of services to their
customers at the best possible price and also to ensure that the customers can use the maximum
number of services at an affordable price. Therefore there is a very tough competition among
these two companies because they perform almost the same kinds of works and try to make sure
that they can surpass each other in terms of their services that they provide.
1, SWOT-Analysis-for-Singapore (2020) <https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-SWOT-Analysis-for-Singapores-
Water-program_tbl1_285405580

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Strength
 SingTel is the at
the market-leading
position in the
telecom industry in
Singapore with the
largest customer
base
 They try to open
expand their
market
geographically
across all nations
Weakness
 They make an
early-stage
investment which
might take a long
time for giving
back the needed
requirements
 Singapore already
has a matured
enough telecom
market and this is a
major weakness for
SingTel to be able
to develop their
business
Opportunity
 They try to focus
on cross-selling
potential so that
they can reach out
to a huge customer
Threat
 The telecom
industry is a very
rigid and also
tightly regulated
industry so there is

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base
 The company
focuses on
diversifying their
products on a day
to day service that
is they try to
d3evelop Pay tv
and broadband
networking
services
the issue of facing
many rigid set of
rules and
regulation
 SingTel will be
actually facing
very tough and cut-
throat competition
from the firms like
StarHub and
Telstra
 SingTel also
suffers from the
risk of risks of
market acquisition
and operations in
the media and
technology forays

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Strength
Market-leading position in Singapore with diverse assets and a broad customer base
SingTel is the largest telecommunication organization in Singapore. They have been able to
develop a broader customer base and are also trying to meet with the needs and demands of their
customers. It is present in 25 nations with 23000 workforces with excelled marketing2.The return
on equity of the company is quite feasible, which can attract investors to invest in.. It is present
in 25 nations with 23000 workforces with excelled marketing3.The return on equity of the
company is quite feasible, which can attract investors to invest in. They have a proper market-
leading asset that is a large customer base so that they are able to generate proper business ideas
and also carry on with their business4.
Geographically diverse operations across high growth emerging markets
SingTel has been successful in expanding their market geographically. This is because they have
strengthened the base of the telecommunication market in Singapore making it a manor
telecommunication hub in the south East Asia5. It has made major investments in companies
2
3
4 Curwen, Peter, and Jason Whalley. "High-speed data provision by mobile networks in
the Asia-Pacific region." Digital Policy, Regulation, and Governance (2018).
5 Harb, Atef, Carol Yaacoub, Abdallah Kassem, and César Baena. "Assessment and
analysis of factors depicting the international expansion process of mobile network

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outside its geographical boundaries. They have made major investments in Optus, which is the
second-largest Australian telecom market with about 100% ownership and 39.5% stake in Bharti
Airtel, the largest telecommunication company of India.
. However, Star TV, on the other hand, tries to ensure that they are providing the best training
services to the employees of the management team so that they can understand all the queries of
their customers and solve them at the same time.
Weakness
Early-stage investments in new media and technology which could take a long time to
realize returns
SingTel is not advanced SingTel must be on focusing more on its technological developments so
that they can make sure that they do not suffer foam any bigger loss. However, they still lack in
bringing about more innovations to their products6. They will have to ensure that they are
bringing more variations in their works so that they can somehow be able to beat the huge
competition set by the other competitive firms. SingTel company must realize that if they do not
focus on diversity and technological upgradations, it will be tough for them to survive in the
current market scenario.
operators: the case of Zain Telecom." International Journal of Technological Learning,
Innovation, and Development 9, no. 2 (2017): 97-113.
6 Leibowicz, B.D., Punjabi, K., O’Shaughnessy, E. and Margolis, R., 2019. Rules of the rooftop: Platform
design and price reductions in an online solar photovoltaic marketplace in the United States. Energy
research & social science, 48, pp.194-204.

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The mature and competitive Singaporean telecom market
The major competition that will be faced by SingTel in Singapore is from the other competitive
brands like StarHub and Telstra. Therefore to survive in this current highly competitive market,
they will have to focus more on their management team and also develop their customer services.
Weak revenue growth Optus in the Australian market
One of the major weaknesses is the recent fall or reduction in the revenue output from Optus that
is the Australian Telecommunication market7. SingTel is of the opinion that they are about to
suffer a mid-single-digit percentage reduction in the Australian operating revenue for the
financial year ending March 2013, which is totally the reversed scenario than the earlier forecast.
In addition to this, the termination charges and also the lower charges of the mandated calls have
a bad impact. Telstra, on the other hand, has made a considerable improvement because they
have been able to develop a very strong position in the market. Apart from this, they are also
focusing on many newer kinds of strategies. Therefore it can be said that Telstra is becoming one
of the major competitors of SingTel as the threat of new entrants has increased.
Opportunity
Focus on the data monetization and bundling opportunities with cross-selling potential
7 Leeming, Mark. "Equity in Australia and the United Kingdom: Dissonance and
Concordance." Sydney Law School Research Paper 19/66 (2019).

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SingTel is trying to use up opportunities like opening up new marketing opportunities in the
Asian nations. Emergences of market-to-market segmentation to the internet of things have led to
conceptual drive data traffic. However, Telstra, on the other hand, has tried to focus on the new
strategies like- to develop health as an ‘adjacent’ opportunity to their existing telecom business
and to develop the new markets in Asia as well.
Pay tv and broadband rising next-generation national broadband network penetration and
cross carriage regulations
SingTel must focus on the formulation of newer and innovative products so that they can sell it
to the same existing customers. This is one of the golden opportunities for the company as they
can work over the development of Singapore's Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network
(Next Gen NBN), which is a fiber to anywhere network project. This, in turn, will be bringing a
sea change in the telecommunication market of Singapore. They can appeal to the taste and
preference pattern of a large number of customers particularly the next generation people that are
tech-savvy people. Apart from this all the officer goers and the customers who access the internet
from home will also be able to use this product.

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Pursing large minority interest in the existing operators and partnerships with associates to
strengthen its operations and market reach
SingTel tries to attain newer partnerships and in the course of this, they often happen to ignore
the existing customers. This is useful for them as they are able to gain new ideas and knowledge
about customer demands and can innovate their goods and services accordingly8. However, this
can turn out to be bad as this ignores the interest of the already existing and loyal customers.
However, their competitive firm that is StarHub is trying to focus on their already existing
customers rather than focusing only on attracting the new associates or the partnerships.
8 Yue, Chia Siow. "Globalization and Regionalization: Singapore's Trade and FDI."
In Singapore's Economic Development: Retrospection and Reflections, pp. 169-194.
2016.

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Threat
Tightly regulated industry, along with a high sovereign risk in operating countries
StarHub must ensure that they are abiding by all the changing norms and the rules in Singapore
and also in all the other places. However, entertainment service is present in many more places
and the service has to be provided in many diverse and different languages. Therefore they will
have to ensure that they abide by all the political rules and the agenda of the places of their
operation.
Risks related to the acquisition, integration, and operations of its media and technology
forays
Market acquisition is one of the most essential aspects that the companies must focus upon in
this current scenario. However, SingTel does not pay much attention to acquisition. It is evident
from the media reports that have thrown considerable light upon the poor relationship building
skill of the company. In addition to this, they have not shown any significant efforts in managing
the privacy issues of their customers as well. This is turn is evident in the fact that they are not
properly developed in terms of their technological tools and implementations. SingTel tries to
focus on its acquisition and integration services. Starthub always tries to provide more promotion
bundle services so that its customers can get more services and more number of channels at a
very low or cheaper amount of price. SingTel has poor strategies for acquisition and spends
fewer efforts over the development of customer relations or public reactions as well. On the other

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hand, StarHub and Telstra have made considerable efforts in relationship building. The 24 hours
customer service system of StarHub is very well developed and also gains customer faith within
them.
The cutthroat competition that could result in pricing pressures and higher acquisition
costs
StarHub and Telstra and are major competitors of SingTel and can pose a very tough
competition as well. As they deal with almost similar kinds of products, they will have to face
huge competition and make sure that they are taking the correct measures to solve the different
issues. To win over the rapidly developing competition in the industry, the pricing system must
be developed properly and affordably so that they can attract the attention of their customers.
SingTel has poor acquisition efforts and so they will have to bear a high acquisition cost. As
SingTel is technologically not advanced, there is a high chance of privacy breaches in their
products. They have not educated their employees in terms of the importance of privacy and
worst managed issues on maintaining privacy and scanning subscribers. To focus on all these
issues SingTel will have to face huge pricing pressure in the near future.

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References
Curwen, Peter, and Jason Whalley. "High-speed data provision by mobile networks in the Asia-
Pacific region." Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance (2018).
Harb, Atef, Carol Yaacoub, Abdallah Kassem, and César Baena. "Assessment and analysis of
factors depicting the international expansion process of mobile network operators: case of
Zain Telecom." International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and
Development 9, no. 2 (2017): 97-113.
Leeming, Mark. "Equity in Australia and the United Kingdom: Dissonance and
Concordance." Sydney Law School Research Paper 19/66 (2019).
Leibowicz, B.D., Punjabi, K., O’Shaughnessy, E. and Margolis, R., 2019. Rules of the rooftop:
Platform design and price reductions in an online solar photovoltaic marketplace in the
United States. Energy research & social science, 48, pp.194-204.
SWOT-Analysis-for-Singapore (2020) <https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-SWOT-
Analysis-for-Singapores-Water-program_tbl1_285405580>
Yue, Chia Siow. "Globalization and Regionalization: Singapore's Trade and FDI." In Singapore's
Economic Development: Retrospection and Reflections, pp. 169-194. 2016.