Singapore on Wednesday became the latest country to drop plans to auction third-generation (3G) mobile phone licences because of a lack of interest.

The country's telecoms authorities said licences would now be sold to the three existing mobile phone operators for the reserve price of 100m Singapore dollars ($55m; �39m) each.

Before the worldwide collapse in investor sentiment towards technology, telecoms and the 3G business model, Singapore had hoped to raise several billion Singapore dollars from a licence auction.

However, potential bidders melted away. Any chance of staging an auction was finally lost when the three eligible bidders opted for different parts of the available spectrum.

An auction would only have been possible if there had been competition for the same spectrum rights.

The three companies expected to obtain the new licences are:

• MobileOne (Asia) - a venture of Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation, Singapore Press Holdings, Cable & Wireless and Pacific Century CyberWorks

• Singapore Telecom Mobile - the mobile arm of Singapore Telecommunications

• and StarHub Mobile, whose shareholders include Singapore Technologies, Singapore Power, British Telecom and Japan's NTT.

They have been given until 23 April to pay the 100m Singapore dollar licence fee.

Still interested

Singapore had hoped to sell four licences. But the fourth potential bidder, Hong Kong-based Sunday Communications, pulled out of the process earlier this week.

Sunday managing director Craig Ehrlich said the company was still interested in obtaining a 3G licence for Singapore but had been unable to complete project financing arrangements in time for the deadline.

Under the Singapore telecoms authorities' rules, a fourth licence cannot be sold for at least one year or at a price less than the 100m Singapore dollar reserve.

3G technology is intended to allow users much faster internet access from mobile phones as well as features such as video and networked games.