Pressroom

It is already among the most “wired up” Wi-Fi cities in the world, but Singapore may soon be the fastest as well. 

Since April 2016, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has started upgrading the existing 10,000 Wireless@SG public Wi-Fi hotspots across 3,000 locations from its existing 2Mbps speeds to 5Mbps. Currently, about half of the existing hotspots are already running on the higher access speed. By year-end, the IDA aims to complete the upgrade process, which will put Singapore on the global map as the nation with the fastest public Wi-Fi speeds as typical speeds globally range from 256kbps to 2Mbps. 

In addition, the IDA plans to double the total number of hotspots to 20,000 by 2018. This will likely set another record for Singapore as the nation with the densent amount of public Wi-Fi hotspots. Currently, Singapore is second-highest behind Tokyo with 18,000 hotspots per 10,000 people but when the number of hotspots is doubled, Singapore is likely to clinch the pole position.

The additional Wireless@SG hotspots will be installed at public places including community centres, hawker centres, MRT stations, shopping malls and tourist attractions.

As of December 2015, there were two million active users on the network, clocking 10 million hours a month. They also consume an average of 1.1 Petabytes of data per month via Wireless@SG, 11 per cent of what users consume monthly on mobile data networks. 

Wireless@SG was launched in 2006 as a free public Wi-Fi service to spur the adoption of wireless broadband technologies and cater to the growing appetite of Singaporeans’ always-on mobile lifestyle. It started off at just 512kbps at just 900 hotspots and has seen speeds growing ten times within a decade. Today, Wireless@SG offers free Wi-Fi for residents and visitors to Singapore at retail malls such as Suntec City and Vivo City, fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC, public transportation hubs such as Changi Airport and MRT stations.