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SINGAPORE: Download and watch high-resolution movies within minutes, or get diagnosed by your doctor in the comfort of your own home - all these could soon take place as the first high-speed internet services are expected to be available in the first half of next year.
Some 32,000 houses in Singapore will soon be getting installations of fibre-to-the-home in the next few months, which will enable them to get ready for the ultra-high speed broadband network, capable of delivering speeds of one Gigabit per second and above.
Residents in several areas islandwide will soon get letters informing them of the free installation, which takes about four hours to complete. These areas include Jurong, Pasir Ris, Geylang and Upper East Coast.
Residents have five weeks to respond to the letter. Homeowners who decline the initial offer will have to pay for future requests, at S$220 for a high-rise apartment and S$450 for a landed property.
The company in charge, OpenNet, plans to cover at least 15 per cent of all homes and commercial buildings by the end of this year.
Tiong Onn Seng, director of Projects & Operations at OpenNet, said: "At this moment, we have about close to 1,200 workers out in the field who do the outside plant cabling. We're also sourcing for other contractors, training up as many workers in the field as far as possible."
To meet demand, it plans to add another 100 workers in the next four months.
The cables that connect the homes to the central offices will have to pass through manholes. As a security measure, the manholes can only be opened by licensed contractors with special keys.
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore has also met some 700 retail service providers to discuss the kind of high-speed internet services they can provide.
Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, said: "There's great potential for some of these small companies to come together and think through the services they can offer.
"So whether it's IPTV, whether its gaming, high speed games, whether it's more educational programmes, whether it's telemedicine, I think the possibilities are immense."
About 95 per cent of all homes and other buildings are expected to be high-speed broadband ready by 2012.
- CNA/yb
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