Wow – Singtel Deploys 10Gbps Home Broadband Service in Singapore

As the United Kingdom continues to fight over the coverage of so-called “superfast broadband“, where download speeds must be greater than 24Mbps (0.024Gbps), Singapore has decided to up its game even further by offering home customers of Singtel a 10,000Mbps (10Gbps) FTTH package!

The new service, which somewhat puts the UK’s plan to shame, will be delivered over Singtel’s Next Generation 10GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) platform. On the other hand Singapore is a fundamentally very different market, being effectively one big city-state where the commercial model is much easier to make and any public funding will reach many more people in a shorter space of time.

At the same time there are at least some UK providers that can already deliver Gigabit capable broadband packages, albeit with very limited coverage, such as B4RN, Hyperoptic and Gigaclear. In fact the latter is about to start trials of a new 5,000Mbps (5Gbps) service (here). Sadly the national UK picture is rather less impressive.

Mr Goh Seow Eng, Singtel’s MD of Consumer, said:

“We made a commitment to our customers to bring them the best network innovations, the very latest technologies for work and play. We recognise that residential customers are using greater bandwidth and requiring faster speeds for their online activities. Our 10Gbps Fibre Home Bundle will offer households the fastest fibre broadband experience in Singapore.”

The service itself will cost S$189 a month (around £92), which obviously pegs it as a high-end premium product, and subscribers will receive the following.

Singtel’s 10Gbps Fibre Home Bundle

* 10G Optical Network Router (ONR)
* Wireless Dual-Band AC router
* NLT installation up to S$235.40 and Singtel
* weekday installation worth S$90
* 4G Mobile Broadband 500MB
* 24 Month Contract
* Complimentary WiFi Mesh Dual Pack worth S$240

It’s all very impressive, although in order to get the most out of it you’d need computer kit that can actually run at 10Gbps (forget about WiFi). The reality for consumers in Singapore is also one where what is advertised and what consumers can actually use is more of a challenge. Certainly you won’t find many domestic Internet content services that could even come remotely close to needing or being able to fully harness a 10Gbps connection, let alone 1Gbps.

Heck even finding services that can gobble all of a 100Mbps link is still difficult for the vast majority of people in normal usage environments. At 10Gbps the limits of both ISP network capacity and international network congestion would also become an even greater barrier. Never the less the thirst for speed does occasional overrule practical logic and if you can beat your rivals to the marketing punch then why not.

Mind you for the more modest consumer Singtel will give you a 1Gbps unlimited home service for just £24 per month, which is more akin to what we see from B4RN in the United Kingdom. We note that prices for 1Gbps have come down quite a bit in Singapore since more operators began competing over the same service option in 2013/14. Most other ISPs now have a similar package, but Singtel are the first to do 10Gbps. It will be a long time before we see that on a national scale in the UK. A very.. long.. time.