SINGAPORE, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Wednesday announced that TPG Telecom will become the country's fourth telco with winning a bid of 105 million Singapore dollars (73.8 million U.S. dollars) for the spectrum on offer.

IMDA said Australia's TPG Telecom will be provisionally allocated 60 MHz of spectrum band made available in the New Entrant Spectrum Auction, comprising 20 MHz in the 900 MHz spectrum band and 40 MHz in the 2.3 GHz spectrum band to provide International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) and IMT-Advanced (4G) services.

The new spectrum rights are expected to commence on April 1, 2017, which means that could be the earliest start for the new telco theoretically. IMDA added the actual commencement date of the spectrum rights will depend on when the General Spectrum Auction is completed.

Currently, there are three mobile operators in the city state, namely Singtel, StarHub and M1. According to the Straits Times, this is the first time in 15 years that the three-way hold on the telecoms market was loosened.