Two Years of Free Wireless Broadband for Singapore

Come 2007, Singaporeans will be ushering the new year with at least 24 months of free basic-tier wireless connectivity at up to 512 kbps speeds almost everywhere on the island-state, thanks to IDA’s ‘Wireless@SG’ program.

Wireless@SG is Singapore’s new wireless broadband program that will be developed and run in the next two years by three local wireless operators. This October, IDA accepted the proposals from iCELL Network Pte Ltd, QMAX Communications and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd to the government’s two-year Call-For-Collaboration (CFC) to kick-start the nation’s progressive deployment of a widely available wireless broadband network by September 2007. This network will complement and extend broadband access, which currently available in homes, offices and schools to public places.

Today, while Singaporeans on-the-go have ready access to voice connectivity (through mobile phones), connectivity for data-centric devices (PDAs and laptops) is readily available only in Wi-Fi hotspots run by individual service providers. With the two-year Wireless@SG program, the number of public ‘hotspots’ will grow 5-fold from the current 900 to about 5,000. The three operators will bump up the number of Wireless@SG ‘hotzones’ in high-traffic, public areas, such as the Central Business District, downtown shopping belts like Orchard Road, and residential town centers, to make wireless broadband ubiquitous by September 2007.

With this, Singaporeans can truly enjoy seamless broadband on-the-go — we need not be home or in the office to now access all our favorite Internet-based services like emails, instant messages, online games and VOIP calls.

Premium vs. Basic Services

The three operators are extending this two-year free offering with unlimited usage to all residents and visitors in Singapore, including tourists and business travellers. Sign-up details will be made known from December 2006 by the operators.

Meanwhile, Singaporeans and other users in Singapore will be pleased to know that they do not have to be existing subscribers of these operators to enjoy the free service. In fact, they can choose to sign up at any time with any one of the three operators, and be able to access all the three operators’ networks with one account.

For those hungrier for bandwidth beyond 512 kbps or connectivity options with higher quality of service, the three operators will also offer premium services at a fee. These will come with differentiated value-added operator-based services such as premium contents, bundled video conferencing, VoIP and video streaming applications, online gaming and location-based services. More details of these will be made available by the operators by the end of this year.