The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will invest up to $100 million to upgrade the country’s nationwide broadband network (NBN), so that it will run on higher speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) by 2028.
The investment will support both the upgrading of front-end user equipment and back-end network, over mid-2024 to 2026, according to a release by IMDA.
This announcement comes after deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong underscored potential investments in this area in the Budget 2024 speech on Feb 16.
With the roll out of 5G mobile services and faster Wi-Fi networks, IMDA says that this will provide more “symmetric end-to-end” 10Gbps connectivity. “This will support maintaining Singapore’s global competitiveness and unlocking further economic opportunities.”
The first generation NBN was in 2006, and today, NBN runs in all Singaporean homes, with more than 85% on at least 1Gbps services, says IMDA.
Last February, StarHub CC3 announced the availability of its UltraSpeed Broadband, which offers upload and download speeds of up to 10Gbps. Meanwhile, Singtel began offering 10Gbps to its customers in 2016.