Singapore considers year of free wireless broadband

Singapore may require wireless broadband service providers to offer free Internet access for one year, according to a document issued by the country's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).

The IDA last week invited service providers to submit proposals for offering wireless broadband in Singapore. The operating model specified by IDA requires operators to offer a basic service with access speeds of at least 512K bps (bits per second). The operators will be required to offer this basic service for "the lowest possible cost," which may include one year of free access, IDA said.

Service providers are also required to offer a premium service that will require users to pay more for access, IDA said, without specifying what that service should offer.

Commercial wireless broadband services are expected to be rolled out later this year, according to IDA.

Broadband Internet access is seen by government officials as a strategic priority for Singapore's future economic development. The country was among the first in Asia to embrace the Internet during the 1990s, but since then other countries in the region, such as South Korea and Japan, have built faster, more advanced networks.

To ensure that Singapore can be competitive in the years ahead, the government last month unveiled plans to construct a high-speed fixed-line broadband network and blanket the island city-state with wireless broadband access. IDA's call for collaboration issued last week is one of the first steps towards rolling out the wireless broadband part of this plan.