Our Dearest Prime Minister solved our problems liao.
Free wireless Net access at public areas from next year
Digital opportunities will also be created for the elderly, needy
and disabled, says PM
By Alfred Siew
ATTENTION-GRABBING: Images of PM Lee delivering his speech were
projected on a circular screen above the stage, as well as on the
walls of the ballroom, together with a montage of images on the
history of infocomm here. -- NG SOR LUAN
SURFING the Internet at broadband speed for free will become
reality next year when the island becomes a giant wireless
zone.
All anyone needs is a laptop or mobile device to get online in
public areas such as HDB town centres.
The 'special offer' will last at least two years under this
initiative, called [email protected]
The number of wireless hot spots will jump five times from 900 to
5,000, as Singapore makes a push for its people to be part of the
digital age.
Stressing that no one will be left behind, Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong yesterday announced plans to give the elderly and the
disabled basic tools to navigate the Internet.
About 10,000 needy households with school-going children will also
qualify for new computers, which will come subsidised and bundled
with broadband.
Mr Lee said: 'We must create digital opportunities for all
Singaporeans, and never allow a digital divide in our
society.'
He chose to unveil these plans at a dinner to mark 25 years of
infocommunications in Singapore. What grabbed the attention of the
1,000 or so industry leaders at the Singapore Expo event last night
was the competition heating up in the broadband market.
By offering at least two years of free access, telecom operators
SingTel, iCell and QMax beat six others to the chunk of state money
offered to subsidise the initiative.
The Government is committing $30 million of the expected $100
million for the wireless networks, which will cover the Central
Business District, Orchard Road and HDB town centres, for a
start.
With broadband on the go, notebook or PDA users do not have to be
cooped up at work or at home to go online.
Details will be announced in December, but a user can expect to
access all three networks by signing up with any of the three
operators.
The expected number of on-the-go surfers: 250,000 within two years,
up from 50,000 today.
But the service does not mean it is time to ditch the high-end
office or home broadband service.
With speeds of 512 kilobits per second, [email protected] will allow for
basic services, like surfing the Net or chatting online. Heavy
users who want to download videos, for example, may want to pay a
fee for premium services offering up to 1 megabit per second.
Prices have yet to be fixed for these premium services.
The upside is that the burgeoning competition in the broadband
market is likely to lower costs of subscription, which start at
about $30 for a home connection now.
Established players like MobileOne, StarHub and Pacific Internet,
which lost out in the bidding, are understood to be preparing
similar wireless services.
With the broadband market given this boost, more people will start
using broadband now, analysts said.
Analyst Nitin Bhat from research firm Frost and Sullivan noted that
similar free wireless services in the United States and Taipei have
prodded broadband providers into offering new and cheaper
services.
Service providers may also go into online TV programmes something
that a free but slower connection cannot give, he noted.
Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Vivian
Balakrishnan said [email protected] will lick the old problem of service
providers being unwilling to invest in a new network, and users
keeping away from spotty coverage provided by hot spots.
The slow broadband take-up under 60 per cent of homes online here
against more than 70 per cent in South Korea is a rare blip in
Singapores otherwise rapid adoption of infocomm.
In his speech, Mr Lee went back into history, noting that for many
years, the public sector owned only two mainframe computers.
Singapore took a 'leap of faith into the unknown' when it decided
to scale up technology use in 1981. By getting government agencies
to adopt technology and exposing the young to it, the country got
set for the digital age and got itself plugged into the global
grid, he added.
He thanked technology pioneers Dr Tony Tan, Mr Philip Yeo, Dr Tan
Chin Nam and Mr Lim Swee Say for driving the effort, which has now
resulted in the infocomm sector chalking up $40 billion in annual
revenues.
He added that the key to reaping 'digital dividends' for Singapore
was to stay ahead of trends that may not always be clear.
'By the time a trend becomes obvious to everyone, we may have
already missed the boat.' [quote]
