Laying off workers is politically sensitive. So far, SingTel's New Economy forays have been small and tentative. It has a joint venture with Lycos, the U.S. Web portal, to develop local-content portals for 10 Asian markets. But none of the ventures are large enough to transform SingTel's basic business model, or its habit of moving deliberately. We certainly cannot go around and sell hype-type stories.
Government ownership adds a political element to every potential cross-border deal.
Some Hong Kong community leaders fretted that if SingTel bought HKT, the Singapore government might somehow sabotage Hong Kong in the two cities' perennial battle to be Asia's commercial and financial hub. As things stand, SingTel can't team up with partners who demand a controlling stake. Australia's Telstra is perhaps foremost among the region's traditional phone companies in thinking in borderless terms. On March 8, Telstra announced that revenue from nontraditional business in the six months ended December 31 had for the first time reached fully half of total revenues. In fact, it is accelerating.