Singapore digital plan targets subsea, broadband, data centers

Singapore loves a good blueprint. And why not? Its economy is built on long-term planning and when it comes to digital it ranks near the top in just about every category – infrastructure, connectivity, smart cities and so on.

In telecoms, it leads the world in fixed-line broadband speed, thanks to its state-backed NGN program, which seamlessly rolled out over half a dozen years at a cost of around 1 billion Singapore dollars (US$745 million).

More recently it's been quite astute with 5G. To minimize duplication, it issued two full licenses to its three 4G operators and, instead of messing around with non-standalone, went straight to full standalone.

Now it's handed down its latest digital blueprint, which says the city needs to ramp up bandwidth, maximize computer power and integrate physical and digital infrastructure.

The plan is not costed and doesn't go into detail on how any of these programs will be realized. But it is notable as a holistic view on digital tech development by a government with a good track record on these things.

Twice as many subsea cables

One priority that has attracted attention is the goal of doubling the number of submarine cable landings. Singapore already is Asia's subsea capacity hub, hosting around 30 international submarine cables that provide an aggregate 44.8Tbit/s capacity, up from 18Tbit/s in 2019.

Its positive relationship with the US means it is now starting land trans-Pacific cables for the first time now that Washington has banned direct links to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. "We will continue to invest ahead of demand to strengthen international and domestic connectivity and bolster our role as a global digital hub," the document says.

The blueprint also grapples with the problem of ever-growing data center power consumption, a tough issue for a city with very limited green energy sources. From 2019 to the start of 2023 Singapore imposed a moratorium on new data centers, which it says account for 82% of greenhouse emissions from the ICT sector.

In the blueprint this is still a work in progress. It says Singapore aims to "chart the path towards green DCs" by managing the entry of new facilities and by setting technical standards on power consumption.

Despite this, the city still expects around SG$10 billion to SG$12 billion in new data center investment and another SG$10 billion in subsea cable investment over the next ten years.

The other headline target is to increase home broadband speeds to 10Gbit/s, taking advantage of fiber, Wi-Fi 6E and 5G SA. Currently 98% of all homes have broadband access, with most able to access 1Gbit/s speeds. The government aims to start the upgrades in mid-2024, saying it will shortly issue a call for collaboration from the industry.

It also aims to deploy "quantum-safe technologies" using post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution to strengthen network security.

— Robert Clark, Contributing Editor, special to Light Reading