Singapore's fourth telco TPG has a new store in Orchard Central

As Singapore's fourth telco prepares to expand its operations in Singapore, the company appears to have opened a physical store in the shopping heart of Singapore in Orchard Central, unit #04-28.

Apart from acting as a service centre for subscribers, non-subscribers can find out more about their service trial plan, facilitate TPG SIM card collection and consider phone options at the same time. The operating hours are 10 am to 10 pm everyday, inclusive of public holidays.

As Singapore's fourth telco prepares to expand its operations in Singapore, the company appears to have opened a physical office in the shopping heart of Singapore in Orchard Central. It is not yet known what this office will be for, but we will update this when we know more.

Having won its operator license in 2016, the Australia headquartered company started its free 12-month service trial last December and is expected to launch commercial services soon. According to the company some 200,000 people signed up for the trial.

Bouquets and brickbats

Earlier this year, news reports said that international mobile analytics firm Opensignal found TPG's average download speed from February to May was 26.1 Mbps, significantly slower than Singtel (42.5Mbps), StarHub (39.5Mbps) and M1 (36.1Mbps). Even worse, TPG users were found to have spent 4.5 per cent of the time without a mobile signal, far higher than M1's 1.6 per cent, StarHub's 1.2 per cent and Singtel's 1 per cent.

In a move to benefit its customers, TPG announced that its 200,000 users would enjoy free unlimited data when they roam in Malaysia and Indonesia. Users could make unlimited calls to Singapore mobile numbers while roaming.

Coverage testing

As part of its operational requirements in Singapore, TPG managed to achieve a nationwide outdoor coverage status before the end of 2018. It has yet to meet the demands for coverage in all road tunnels and inside buildings, and for coverage in underground MRT stations by the end of 2021.

In November, NetLink NBN Trust announced it would support TPG Telecom's 5G trial network across Singapore Science Park 1 and 2 by providing the fibre network infrastructure to connect TPG Telecom's 5G mobile base stations.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.