IDA launches ambitious plan to put Singapore on top of Asia’s Infocomm world map

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore unveiled plans of their Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure, or Next Gen Nll, today to the press.

The Next Gen Nll, slated to be Singapore’s new digital super-highway for super-connectivity, is designed to firmly entrench Singapore’s Infocomm leadership ahead of its Asian competitors.

With bandwidth intensive services and applications like IPTV and IP video telephony emerging as key future technologies, there is a clear need for Singapore to develop an ultra-fast broadband infrastructure - the Next Gen Nll - to support this.

According to IDA, besides serving as a technology enabler, the Next Gen Nll is also a source of competitive advantage for Singapore. Consumers can expect to enjoy better competitive rates for broadband as the market opens up. Businesses likewise can expect teh competitive pricing and faster connectivity to translate into lower business costs.

Faster wired speeds

The Next Gen Nll will comprise of both a high-speed wired and wirelss component.

For the wired infrastructure, the NAtional Broadband Network (NBN), IDA is looking at a carrier neutral wired network that can provide speeds of 1Gbps-more than 500 times the typical 2 Mbps available n Singapore today. IDA is considering all technologies that can offer such speeds (like optical fibre to the home) and will be setting up a public-partnership to rollout NBN.