SingTel's mobile customers enjoy superior indoor and outdoor coverage supported by over 1,000 base stations in Singapore. SingTel’s fully-owned subsidiary, Optus, has in place more than 4,000 base stations across Australia.

Always at the forefront of technology, SingTel launched the world’s first Local Direct Dial service, which allows its customers to call roamers on its network without incurring international call charges.

SingTel also offers its mobile customers international roaming coverage with more than 400 roaming networks in more than 200 destinations worldwide.

SingTel’s MMS service was launched in 2002. It had been the first Singapore operator to offer Short Messaging Service (SMS) to customers in 1995 as well as Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) in 2000.

GPRS allows broadband multimedia data to be transmitted over mobile phone networks at speeds of up to 115 kbps. It supplements SingTel’s High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) service, which enables access service at 38.4 kbps.

3G offers higher data speeds of up to 384 kbps.  It also enables customers to enjoy video calls and high-speed video streaming using its leadership position as a full service provider, SingTel is extending the benefits of 3G to its fixed line and broadband Internet customers as well. 

In early 1999, the company started a 3G trial using Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) technology with leading Japanese operator, NTT DoCoMo, and the Centre for Wireless Communications, National University Singapore.

SingTel was awarded a 3G licence in April 2001.  In July 2003, SingTel announced that it has appointed Ericsson as the vendor for its 3G network in Singapore.  SingTel launched its commercial 3G services in February 2005.

SingTel mobile customers today enjoy wireless access to the Internet via WAP, HSCSD, GPRS and Wi-Fi in more than 300 wireless hotspots in Singapore and almost 12,000 wireless hotspots worldwide. 

In Australia, Optus has invested more than $2.32 billion thus far in its GSM network which provides mobile coverage to over 96 per cent of the Australian population. It currently has more almost 6 million mobile customers.

The operator was also the first carrier to launch WAP and to implement a high speed data service with GPRS. In December 2001, Optus made Australia’s first ‘live’ 3G calls, confirming its position as the leader in mobile data innovation in the country. It was also the first operator in Australia to launch Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) in July 2002.