 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific II 2002 |
| Article no.: | 9 | |
| Topic: | Singapore – Wired With Wireless | |
| Author: | Khoong Hock Yun | |
| Title: | Assistant Chief Executive Officer | |
| Organisation: | Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore | |
| PDF size: | 0KB |
About author
Khoong Hock Yun is the Assistant Chief Executive Officer for Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. He has the task of providing the vision and approach to turn Singapore into a knowledge-based economy and society. In the last ten years, Khoong Hock Yun, a Singaporean, has held senior management, marketing and technical positions in the U.S. and Asia. More recently, he was the Director for one of Mentor Graphics Corporation’s Strategic Business Units in Singapore, with responsibilities for marketing, engineering, quality assurance, documentation and customer support. Prior to joining Mentor, he was the Deputy Head of Software Engineering Laboratory at the Defence Science Organisation in the Ministry of Defence, Singapore. There, he handled research in software engineering, real-time operating systems and artificial intelligence. He holds Master’s degrees in Engineering and Business Administration from the National University of Singapore. He is also a Chartered Engineer (UK).
Article abstract
Singapore aims to be an Infocomm-savvy nation a test-bed for emerging technologies in Asia. Accordingly, Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has introduced ‘Wired With Wireless’, a wireless industry development programme that fosters collaborative endeavours among complementary and competitive wireless industry suppliers and users. Each collaborative project serves as a platform for industry players to interact, identify collaboration opportunities and propose synergistic solutions. Users will derive the benefits of integrated or end-to-end solutions generated through interaction between industry partners.
Full Article
It has been 3 years since the global telecommunications scene was rife with talk about 3G. After spending billions on third-generation (3G) licences in the late 1990s, European operators have found it difficult to recoup costs due to heavy infrastructure investments, uncertainty in demand for 3G services and delays in the launch of networks and services. With the benefit of hindsight from the European experience, Asia Pacific countries adopted a more cautious outlook towards the award of 3G licences. To date, apart from the phenomenal success of iMode, based on NTT DoCoMo’s proprietary PDC network in Japan, a range of 3G services was also scheduled for launch and trial during the FIFA World Cup 2002 in South Korea. Singapore Joins the Wireless Route While transiting from 2G to the eventual 3G, Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore have started to offer wireless Internet services over existing networks. Similar to global experience, WAP take-up in Singapore has been slow since it was introduced in the late 1990s. However, with a current mobile penetration rate exceeding 70%, coupled with prolific use of SMS, wireless data services have thrived together with Singapore’s Infocomm-savvy population. GPRS services have been available since mid-200l, amidst 3G trials by three incumbent operators, SingTel Mobile, Mobile One and StarHub Mobile. In comparison to the global wireless scene of three years ago, there is no better time for Singapore’s wireless sector. The Singapore wireless industry has witnessed significant milestones in 2002: • SingTel Mobile launched a roaming service for its 30,000 GPRS users in April. This service enabled exchange of data with other overseas mobile networks. • MobileOne and SingTel Mobile launched multimedia messaging service (MMS) in August and September respectively. MMS could be icing on the cake for the dominant SMS ‘culture’ in Singapore. It may catalyse GPRS uptake and increase in development of consumer content and applications that optimize the increased bandwidth and the packet-based charging mechanism that GPRS offers. • Availability of Java-based GPRS handsets and handheld devices that combine colour with video and multimedia capabilities. Franklin D Roosevelt once said, “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” Singapore has chosen to move forward to establish its position as an Infocomm-savvy nation and a test-bed for emerging technologies in Asia. As the Infocomm industry regulator and promoter, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) facilitates a level playing field where competition and collaboration can thrive to benefit consumers. One example is the introduction of ‘Wired With Wireless’, an IDA-driven wireless industry development programme. Wired With Wireless Asia-Pacific was still recovering from the Asian financial crisis in the 4th quarter of 2000. The wireless scene saw dismal performance with WAP and data services. There were concerns over the lack of handsets, compelling applications and services that could realize the 3G promise. Despite all, the IDA was committed to promote the wireless industry. The launch of Wired With Wireless in October 2000 signified the Singapore government’s commitment towards a nationwide vision that integrates the benefits of broadband and mobility. Wired With Wireless aims to promote the development and adoption of wireless applications and services. The IDA moves in tandem with the wireless industry en route towards a common milestone – Wired With Wireless: anywhere, any time and on any device. Five areas have been identified and targeted to achieve the programme’s objectives: • Location-based services • Machine-to-machine communications • Mobile commerce • Wireless enterprise • Wireless multimedia and messaging Wireless Test Drive: Honing Capabilities Should content development be encouraged to drive user demand or be driven by user demand? Call for Collaboration (CFC) projects under ‘Wired With Wireless’ fosters collaborative endeavours among industry players in the value chain. Collaboration is facilitated between players that supply and demand wireless applications and services. Users are expected to derive the benefits of integrated or end-to-end solutions through such interaction between complementary and competitive industry partners. Each CFC serves as a platform for industry players to meet potential partners and identify collaboration opportunities, and to propose innovative solutions with greater synergistic value where ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. The CFC process aims to nurture capabilities in wireless technologies and identify best-of-breed proposals and solutions that will proliferate wireless technological innovation, develop leading-edge mobile communications talent, and export innovative wireless products and services. The CFC process has been successfully applied in the area of mobile communications for mobile commerce, wireless enterprise and wireless Java. In the area of mobile commerce, mobile payment solutions involving direct debit, stored value cards and credit cards have been developed and have undergone trials. Under wireless enterprise, trials involving mobile workforce adopting sales force and field force automation, supply chain management and remote monitoring are being conducted. Wireless Java has been identified as one of the enabling components to the ‘Wired With Wireless’ focus areas (Figure 1). Applications and services are currently being developed for finance, mobile commerce, mobile communication, web services and the J2ME device platform. The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has also awarded three location-based services (LBS) map content provision licences to the private sector, through their Call for Business Collaboration [CFC(B)] exercise that is supported by the IDA. The licences were awarded through three consortia led by StarVision Information Technology, Wheresoft Geocommerce and V3 TeleTech. The provision of Singapore’s digital maps by these consortia will result in more commercial LBS offerings from 2003. Milestones from the CFC Journey To date, two of the noteworthy outcomes to the CFC project trials include: • World’s first collaboration between three mobile operators, SingTel Mobile, Mobile One and StarHub Mobile, to facilitate a common nationwide platform that creates a larger consumer base and eliminates the need for merchants to invest in different backend integration systems; • Asia’s first wireless public key infrastructure (WPKI) dual-chip trial by a Nokia-led consortium. Person-to-person fund transfer through direct debit with secure authentication was tested using 200 WAP dual-SIM handsets. Geared up for Innovation The CFC process acts as a platform to bring local and overseas wireless value chain players together to produce solutions that adequately address demand and supply. Besides this, the Pilot and Trial Hotspots (PATH) initiative by IDA also motivates Singapore-based Info– comm companies to conduct pilot runs and trials of innovative solutions prior to their introduction to the mass market. In today’s fast-paced, dynamic high-tech industry, time to market is one of the critical success factors for Infocomm companies. To test the viability of a company’s products and services through PATH, Singapore-based Infocomm companies are encouraged to develop and deploy their pilot solutions within a real business or user environment. Such pilot projects will help to hone the companies’ products and services and provide insights to potential commercialization. PATH allows companies to establish credible references and gain early market acceptance by using Singapore as a living laboratory. Two prevailing projects attest to product and service innovation under PATH. The first is a LBS trial by UK-based Cambridge Positioning Systems and SingTel Mobile. This is Asia’s most comprehensive LBS trial where high-accuracy mobile LBS is run within two districts in Singapore: Tampines New Town and Singapore Expo in Changi. The second project, the School Bus Tracking and Monitoring System, shows innovative use of GPRS in fleet management and an on-board monitoring system designed to be network-indep– endent. Unity Wireless Integration (Singapore) Pte Ltd pilots the project with the support of a local school, its bus operator and the students’ parents. If the trial proves successful, other schools can similarly benefit from enhanced security for their students and better customer service from school bus operators. Blaze the Trail, Chart new Frontiers “Do not follow where the path may lead. Instead go where there is no path and leave a trail.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Wired With Wireless CFC and PATH have been used to identify and catalyse the fruition of innovative projects. The process of innovation is akin to a journey of one thousand miles. Wired With Wireless identifies with its participants; each step in the process is a bold step forward. Singapore aims to be a repository that bears the ‘medals and scars’ of experimentation with Infocomm technologies. Global Infocomm companies can register their interest through wireless@ida.gov.sg. The harnessing of pilot and trial projects for Infocomm innovation has earned Singapore international recognition. In January 2002, the Feature.com, a European on-line magazine, named Singapore as one of the “Top Mobile Cities to Watch for in 2002” and cited the island state as “the Living Lab for wireless developments”. Mr. Hiroaki Takeichi, board member and group president of Fujitsu Limited Network Systems Group, had said, “Singapore is the best place to showcase wireless developments, because of the quick feedback from end users. Such rapid feedback requires highly educated people, a small geographical area, and an English-speaking population.” Singapore is a beneficiary of the collaborative model. Encouraging partnerships and collaboration can help to strengthen and give a more balanced outlook to the heterogeneous Asian market – one that already houses more than half of the world’s population. From this perspective, one can see that it is vital to increase the breadth and depth of alliances. This can be achieved through setting standards and guidelines at a regional level in promising areas such as interoperability, LBS and wireless Java. With a ready base of sophisticated consumers exposed to 99% island-wide broadband coverage and excellent regional and international connectivity to more than 30 countries via submarine cable capacity of over 21 terabits per second, Singapore is a choice test bed -environment for companies to pilot new wireless products and services before launching them commercially. 6,000 multinational companies operate offices, factories and regional headquarters out of this cosmopolitan island state. This provides a multitude of opportunities to companies in the global wireless arena to form strategic alliances and catalyse new business opportunities. As part of its Connected Island vision, Singapore’s next step to 3G would be to facilitate the integration of applications, platforms and devices to provide a seamless connectivity for everyone on the go, anywhere, any time and on any device.
