Singtel has announced that it has achieved more than 95 percent standalone 5G coverage in Singapore, three years ahead of the regulatory target of end-2025, and this will accelerate the commercial adoption of the network with a host of use cases becoming possible.
The telco said that its network coverage has made Singapore “the first country in the world to be fully covered by a 5G standalone network”. Its network now covers more than 1,300 outdoor locations and over 400 in-building, as well as underground locations.
The telco was officially awarded the 3.5 GHz and the millimetre wave spectrum as part of the 5G licence issued by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) in June 2020, and an additional 2.1 GHz spectrum in Nov 2021.
Singtel’s chief executive officer of its group enterprise and regional data centre business, Bill Chang, said commercial adoption would accelerate as the “high-speed low latency with edge cloud and network slicing” ability built into the network enables functions like real-time computing, data storage, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) services at the edge.
“This will bring to life more mission-critical enterprise applications than before, from automated quality inspection in factories, smart city planning, connected self-driving vehicles to supercharged IoT,” Chang said.
Working with partners
He said Singtel was working with its partners across the Asia Pacific, “extending more 5G solutions and use cases to enterprises and other telecommunication service providers in the region”.
Chang said in order to support the development of a “whole host of public sector 5G use cases for the built environment, transport, and tourism industries”, Singtel launched the 5G@Sentosa testbed last year, in partnership with multiple government agencies, including the Government Technology Agency and the Sentosa Development Corporation.
“Around 15 live trials are slated to be running by the end of this year, and at least 30 by the first half of 2023,” he said.
Earlier this year, Singtel launched Paragon its “all-in-one orchestration platform” that consolidates all the resources required across 5G and edge computing into one touchpoint.
This significantly lowers “the barriers to 5G adoption and integration for enterprises, from cost to complexity”, Chang said.
Singtel has worked with local security management company AETOS, semiconductor company Micron and automobile manufacturing giant Hyundai, all of whom have deployed the company’s 5G solutions in their Singapore operations “to improve operational efficiencies, drive innovation and enhance problem-solving and decision-making capabilities”, Chang said.
Singtel said to mark the milestone, this year’s Singapore National Day parade will be fully streamed on its 5G network and several benefits would be given to retail customers such as unlimited 5G data on August 9.
