Singapore, a city state of nearly 700 square kilometers with a population of over 4 million, has drawn a blueprint for transforming itself into an intelligent nation and global city powered by infocomm in a decade.

Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015), officially launched last week, is Singapore's latest 10-year masterplan in its infocomm development journey started with the Civil Service Computerization Program in 1981.

Under the iN2015, which is expected to cost the government multi-billion U.S. dollars to realize, Singapore will build two broadband networks nation-wide, namely a wired network and a wireless network.

"The building of the next generation national infocomm infrastructure is the first key initiative under the iN2015 masterplan... We will offer broadband connectivity anywhere, anytime and on any device," said Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lee Boon Yang when he unveiled the plan on June 20.

The wired network, also known as the Next Generation National Broadband Network (NBN), will connect all homes, schools and businesses in Singapore with ultra-high speeds from 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to more than 1 gigabit per second to support an increasing demand for such applications as high definition internet protocol television and video conferencing.

Scheduled to be completed by 2012, the project has attracted 33 companies, including Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and international giants Motorola and Siemens, to submit building concepts with estimated cost of between 500 million Singapore dollars (about 313 million U.S. dollars) to 5 billion Singapore dollars (about 3 billion U.S. dollars).

What will benefit Singaporeans sooner is a pervasive and integrated wireless network, which is expected to be rolled out in key areas like the central business district and the Orchard road shopping belt from December this year. It will be extended to cover the whole nation by September next year.

Stressing affordability and constant connectivity, some service providers have proposed offering free access for connection at 512 kilobits per second with paid plans for access speeds of 1 Mbps or more, while others have suggested adding Wi-Max and broadband cellular solutions on top of their Wi-Fi offering to cater to newer technologies, according to the minister.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) said that it will announce the winner among the nine bidders for the wireless service in the coming September.

With the completion of the two broadband networks, Singapore hopes that, by 2015, at least 90 percent of homes will use broadband access, up from the current 54 percent, while every household with school-going children will own a computer with Internet access.

To achieve these goals, the government is encouraging students in needy families to "earn" their computers by teaching the elderly to use computers at community clubs, in addition to directly providing subsidies for these families.

Apart from the infrastructure, the iN2015 masterplan also aims to help strengthen the city state's infocomm industry with innovative "made-by-Singapore" products, services and solutions, Lee said, adding that "one such marketable product is Singapore's e-government solutions."

He announced that a Singapore e-Government Leadership Center will be set up later this year to deliver training programs covering public policy, infocomm technology (ICT) policy and management, as well as case studies in innovative e-government, for industry and government personnel worldwide.

Besides, nurturing an infocomm savvy workforce and globally competitive talent pool in Singapore, as well as harnessing the ICT to enhance the competitiveness of the country's economy, are also included in the iN2015 plan.

Economically, Singapore aims to double the value-add of the infocomm industry to 26 billion Singapore dollars (about 16 billion U.S. dollars), generate a three-fold increase in its infocomm export revenue to 60 billion Singapore dollars (about 38 billion U.S. dollars), and create 80,000 additional infocomm and infocomm-related jobs by 2015.

As far as people's lives are concerned, the government expects the ICT to help develop innovative and personalized services such as real-time online medical services for the elderly, re-designed jobs for disabled people, and even a digital concierge website for tourists in Singapore through which one can not only book tickets and reserve hotel rooms, but also get alerts on special bargains and attractions on his mobile devices.

As Minister Lee put it, "life in 2015 will be the realization of infocomm's promise of an interconnected world with information and services easily accessible to all."

While drawing an enticing picture of life in Singapore in 10 years time, the iN2015 masterplan also takes into account the cyberspace security and privacy issues.

A national cyber-threat monitoring center will open early next year to keep Singapore's cyberspace safe from hackers and terrorists so as to protect the interests and assets of the government, businesses and individuals online, and to boost investors' confidence in the city state.

The IDA will also be studying the feasibility of a Cybersecurity Act and a National Authentication Framework, while seeking legislation on spam control.

Source: Xinhua