Tech at Play

You might have seen this report (subscription required) in this Friday’s edition of The Straits Times, which talks about the state of broadband penetration of Singapore – a staggering 99.9% as of last December.

Titled simply “S’pore is most wired nation,” the article by journalist Weizhen attributed the 99.9% figure to the fact that many households have more than one broadband line – a home connection, and a portable modem, for example.

I was quoted right at the bottom, excerpt as follows:

User Paul Mah, 30, is among the masses of wired Singaporeans with more than one broadband line: He has a connection at home and a portable modem.

‘It is useful when I need to do work outside urgently, or to kill time in between appointments,’ said the part-time polytechnic lecturer and freelance writer. ‘It’s the lifestyle now. I want my laptop and stable Internet access when I’m sitting at Starbucks having coffee.’

Though I don’t think I put it quite so eloquently on the phone! – Ha.

Coincidentally, I have posted a couple of articles related to wireless broadband over the last two weeks prior to speaking to Weizhen.  I wrote them based on my experiences with the state of 3G broadband, as well as the island-wide Wireless@SG Wi-Fi network in Singapore.

I also discuss the various merits of the two technologies in the below articles.

Wi-Fi or 3G: Which is better for mobile users?

Having used both Wi-Fi and 3G data networks for accessing the Internet on-the-go for more than a year, Paul Mah shares his experiences with each. Is there a clear winner?

3G networks don’t deliver speeds users expect

Despite the hype and billion dollar investments, anecdotal evidence – and now a study by Gartner – suggests rapidly diminishing returns on higher-tiered speeds of mobile broadband.

Certainly, while wireless broadband isn’t quite as robust or fast as a wired one, there is plenty of headroom of room for growth for mobile broadband.  In fact, StarHub is already upgrading their networks to HSPA Plus (or HSPA+), which promises speeds 1.5 times faster than the 14.4Mbps that their network is currently capable of.

Stay tuned.

No related posts.