Cellphone users in Singapore can expect extended coverage in buildings, on roads and when travelling in an MRT train underground, when stricter rules on 3G coverage unveiled today by the government regulator kick in as soon as April 2012.

Following a number of high-profile network outages last year, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) today spelt out the new rules, which will include 85 per cent coverage for each building here. Currently, telcos only have to cover 85 per cent of “public access areas”.

For commuters, the coverage will now include all road and MRT tunnels as well as the CTE by 2015, extending from the previous requirement of 95 per cent across road and MRT tunnels tested. In all, about 99 per cent of the outdoor space on the island is to be blanketed by 3G signals. Previously, the requirement was only 95 per cent across all roads.

And each time any of the three telecom operators here – SingTel, StarHub, M1 – fails to meet one requirement, they can be fined up to S$50,000, instead of the previous “slap on the wrist” S$5,000 per indicator per month.

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SingTel is upping download speeds on the go on December 22, with a new mobile broadband service that promises up to 75Mbps with the new LTE or long term evolution technology.

The new service will be available at Singapore’s central financial district at launch, along with other high traffic areas like Orchard, City Hall, Marina Bay and Novena. By end 2012, SingTel expects to provide coverage for 80 per cent of users, and 95 per cent by end 2013.

Rival telco M1 had launched a limited LTE service earlier this year, but it offered this only to business customers. SingTel’s service is open to consumers as well. …

Lovers of e-books in Singapore are getting their own local e-book fix, after SingTel said on Tuesday that it was offering Singapore’s first e-book service. This service, named skoob, will allow Singaporeans to peruse and purchase e-books for their smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

Offering more than 39,000 local and international bestsellers at launch, it is the first e-book service to accept payment in Singapore dollars. E-books also tend to be cheaper than hard copy of books – SingTel highlights how a hard copy of John Grisham’s The Confession costs S$9 for an e-book rather than the S$17 offered at bookstores. …

It was a strange sight: A group of geeks seated at a coffeeshop round table, shouting/speaking at their phones, rather than through their phones.

My friends and I were testing out SingTel’s free deF!ND mobile app over coffee the last weekend. The directory concierge app, which supports voice recognition, was just released about a week ago on both the iOS and Android platforms.

Voice recognition software has long been available in the market, but it took Steve Job’s recently released iPhone 4S and Siri to make it popular. Reams have been written about Siri, and it has spawned brilliant caricatures and even a copycat Android version called Iris.

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Couch potatoes in Singapore will find it easier to switch pay-TV operators come March 2012, when new rules unveiled today kick in to prevent operators from locking in users with long-term or punitive subscription plans.

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Higher launch prices notwithstanding, hundreds of iPhone fans queued up late Thursday night to be among the first people in Singapore to own Apple’s latest gizmo – the iPhone 4S.

Although the launch time stated by all telcos was Friday 12 midnight, some began queuing as early as 8.30am on Thursday to ensure that they get a place in the queue.

Take Melva Yip, a 21-year-old student at Nanyang Polytechnic. He and his friend agreed to work in shifts and started their quest from 8.30am on Thursday. His reward: the first M1 customer to own an iPhone 4S.

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The iPhone 4S might have disappointed many fans, and validated others of their move to Android, but it’s still a highly awaited smartphone to many people.

As the local launch dates draws near, both SingTel and M1 have already unveiled their plans and pricing for the new iPhone.

StarHub, on the other hand, is keeping mum over its plans for the device, and already some fans are speculating whether the green telco has failed to secure an agreement with Apple in time for the launch.

But let’s work with the numbers we already have. Based on the cheapest plan from both SingTel and M1, the new iPhone will cost you anywhere from $498 to $798.

M1 offers a lower monthly subscription and lower iPhone prices (with the exception of the 16GB version), but bundles 50 less SMS than SingTel.

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Think of Singapore’s latest efforts to turn everyone’s phone into a mobile wallet to pay for taxi rides, burgers and groceries, and the phrase deja vu may not be far from your mind.

As the city-state’s infocomm regulator and its industry partners embark on an ambitious S$40 million project, unveiled today, to let mobile phone users here tap and pay with their phones at some 20,000 payment points by next year, they could perhaps remember a lesson or two from the past.

If they succeed, users will be able to trot out their smartphones to pay for a burger at McDonald’s instead of using an ez-link card by mid-2012. A year later, in 2013, commuters may also be able to tap their phones at train station gantries to pay for their rides – if the transport authorities and companies get their act together.

But Singapore has seen numerous such trials over the years, even as places like Japan and Hong Kong have raced ahead with more advanced payment options. …

SingTel says it is restoring connections to its 3G services this evening, after a “software glitch” made it difficult for many users to make calls, send SMSes and surf the Web on their phones today.

The Singapore telecom operator posted on its Facebook page, an hour ago, that the issues were intermittent and services were being turned back on progressively. It said:

Hi everyone. The cause of the intermittent issues faced by some of our 3G customers has been traced to a software glitch. Our engineers are restoring services progressively this evening. Again, we apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Throughout the day, many SingTel users had taken to Facebook and Twitter to complain about being unable to log on to the network, and receiving only weak or unstable signals. According to one report by ZDNetAsia, the disruption for some users has been ongoing for two days. …

The followup to one of the most popular Android phones last year is proving to be a good one for Samsung, as the Galaxy SII was sold out in Singapore over the weekend.

No numbers from Samsung Singapore folks yet, but they must be beaming with smiles at the “unexpected” sales at launch, while waiting for more stocks to arrive “in the next few days”.

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