A new national blueprint, known as the Digital Connectivity Blueprint, is being drafted by the Ministry for Communications and Information (MCI), outlining plans for 6G mobile and a 10Gbps home broadband network. This blueprint, which is expected to help Singapore chart new growth opportunities and gather speed in the global race for digital dominance, will include plans to have more subsea cables in Singapore to boost digital trade and data flow through the nation, which will in turn attract more investment to the city-state. To develop this plan, the MCI has formed an advisory panel comprising eight business and industry experts to shape the blueprint, due to be launched later in 2023.
Presently, broadband plans with surfing speeds of up to 1Gbps are the current standard in households in Singapore, made possible with the nationwide roll-out of the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN) in 2010. 5G use has also been promoted commercially, with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore to provide telemedicine to crew at sea, and remotely control unmanned vessels to inspect ships and fight fires. The Infocomm and Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) have also committed SGD 70 million (USD 52 million) worth of grants to qualifying projects, including a soon-to-launch Hyundai Motor Group smart factory equipped with 5G-enabled robots to manufacture built-to-order electric vehicles.
While 5G networks are 10 times faster and enable about 1,000 more devices to be connected without any transmission lag compared with 4G ones, 6G networks are expected to be up to 100 times faster than 5G networks. The 6G network are also expected to be able to have the potential to make the digital and physical world indistinguishable through artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality and virtual reality (VR) technologies, and deliver on the promise of edge computing. To complement these efforts, plans are in place to attract top-tier AI researchers to be based in Singapore to mentor and groom promising talent.
(Source: Straits Times)