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Faster 4G rollout in Singapore
By Rachel Kelly | Posted: 24 January 2011 1813 hrs
Mobile Internet
SINGAPORE: Singapore can expect a quicker rollout of faster mobile broadband.
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has announced its plans to bring forward the rollout of 4G in Singapore.
4G, or the fourth generation of wireless-mobile standards, provides users with mobile speeds five to 10 times faster than the current 3G speeds. So, downloading a video on a smartphone would be a breeze.
The IDA will re-allocate the 2.3/2.5 GHz bands for 4G as early as next year.
IDA added, however, that the take-up of the allocation would commence once current contracts expire on 30 June, 2015.
The move is to provide greater certainty to industry on the availability of the spectrum rights after 2015.
Current spectrum right holders are: M1, PacketOne Singapore, QMax Comms, SingTel Mobile Singapore and StarHub Mobile.
The IDA will also allow operators to deploy Long Term Evolution (LTE) with their existing spectrum rights in the 900/1800 MHz and 2.3/2.5 GHz bands.
The move is aimed at guiding and assisting the industry in their investment and network planning.
An M1 spokeswoman told MediaCorp that "M1 will be able to deploy LTE earlier, as well as manage our spectrum allocation more efficiently."
Foong King Yew, research director at Gartner Advisory, said: "It will be an opportunity for the service providers to deploy the new technology early on, work through the teething problems and gain operational experience before mass deployment."
A SingTel spokesperson said: "As LTE can operate in different spectrums including 2.3/2.5G, 900/1800M and even 700M, SingTel is exploring all options available and is working closely with network providers to ensure commercial LTE services can be introduced to our customers in good time. The availability of compatible devices like dongles, phones and tablets are key factors that will influence the time to market for LTE services."
A StarHub spokesperson said: "StarHub is seeing significant growth in mobile data and LTE is planned to form an important part of the future growth of our network. We are currently conducting technical trials of LTE."
But while telcos will be able to roll out LTE on current bandwidth, it is still a waiting game when it comes to the availability of compatible devices.
For the moment, experts say that LTE is mainly a mobile broadband play for devices such as mobile dongles and it won't be until 2012 that we will see further rollout on smaller screens such as smartphones.
"I think the focus has to shift from consumer to what it can do for businesses. At the end of the day, giving higher speeds to consumers will not open their purse strings [further]. So what we are to look at is to enable something that can enable businesses," said Nitin Bhat, partner & vice president at Frost & Sullivan ICT Practice Asia Pacific.
Some analysts expect over 70 billion connected devices to come to market in the next 10 years. That compares with around 4 billion in the last 10 years.
The telcos will need to bid for the re-allocated bandwidth. But experts do not expect them to pay more than S$100 million each, the amount they paid for 3G.
- CNA/
By Rachel Kelly | Posted: 24 January 2011 1813 hrs
Mobile Internet
SINGAPORE: Singapore can expect a quicker rollout of faster mobile broadband.
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has announced its plans to bring forward the rollout of 4G in Singapore.
4G, or the fourth generation of wireless-mobile standards, provides users with mobile speeds five to 10 times faster than the current 3G speeds. So, downloading a video on a smartphone would be a breeze.
The IDA will re-allocate the 2.3/2.5 GHz bands for 4G as early as next year.
IDA added, however, that the take-up of the allocation would commence once current contracts expire on 30 June, 2015.
The move is to provide greater certainty to industry on the availability of the spectrum rights after 2015.
Current spectrum right holders are: M1, PacketOne Singapore, QMax Comms, SingTel Mobile Singapore and StarHub Mobile.
The IDA will also allow operators to deploy Long Term Evolution (LTE) with their existing spectrum rights in the 900/1800 MHz and 2.3/2.5 GHz bands.
The move is aimed at guiding and assisting the industry in their investment and network planning.
An M1 spokeswoman told MediaCorp that "M1 will be able to deploy LTE earlier, as well as manage our spectrum allocation more efficiently."
Foong King Yew, research director at Gartner Advisory, said: "It will be an opportunity for the service providers to deploy the new technology early on, work through the teething problems and gain operational experience before mass deployment."
A SingTel spokesperson said: "As LTE can operate in different spectrums including 2.3/2.5G, 900/1800M and even 700M, SingTel is exploring all options available and is working closely with network providers to ensure commercial LTE services can be introduced to our customers in good time. The availability of compatible devices like dongles, phones and tablets are key factors that will influence the time to market for LTE services."
A StarHub spokesperson said: "StarHub is seeing significant growth in mobile data and LTE is planned to form an important part of the future growth of our network. We are currently conducting technical trials of LTE."
But while telcos will be able to roll out LTE on current bandwidth, it is still a waiting game when it comes to the availability of compatible devices.
For the moment, experts say that LTE is mainly a mobile broadband play for devices such as mobile dongles and it won't be until 2012 that we will see further rollout on smaller screens such as smartphones.
"I think the focus has to shift from consumer to what it can do for businesses. At the end of the day, giving higher speeds to consumers will not open their purse strings [further]. So what we are to look at is to enable something that can enable businesses," said Nitin Bhat, partner & vice president at Frost & Sullivan ICT Practice Asia Pacific.
Some analysts expect over 70 billion connected devices to come to market in the next 10 years. That compares with around 4 billion in the last 10 years.
The telcos will need to bid for the re-allocated bandwidth. But experts do not expect them to pay more than S$100 million each, the amount they paid for 3G.
- CNA/
