Mobile Internet Data Costs across region... Brunei is most affordable, India is on the other end

Source: Tech In Asia, Socialmeediaweek.org

According to above sources, the most affordable mobile internet is in Brunei, followed by Singapore while the most expensive are Timor, India, Philippines.

I think the study is good but if possible there should be some points need to be considered. Especially the bottom of pyramid folks who occupy the bottom half or more in India, timor etc. If we focus on Mobile Data subscribers that would be a good measurement.

i.e. Take the sample and calculations from those who subscribe to Mobile Data. In that case there would be a huge different IMHO.

I am sure Indonesia, Thailand would be more 'affordable'. 

Samknows - Singapore

If you guys ever visited Hardwarezone forums, you might have seen a very active thread on Samknows. It's
here
Samknows - Singapore Campaign

It's really a great tool which can monitor the internet performance of your residential broadband. This gives the theoretical maximum throughput you can expect and nicely put in a graphical format.

But I've only one problem. Which is the feedback loop. When I feedback or complain about packet loss, or slow throughput with my ISP, it's almost the same answer from them.

"Internet performance can be subjective and varies greatly with overseas server".

Common my dear ISP friends, customers are not idiots and they are technically pretty good these days. So better prepare some answers or try to entertain instead of shooting them down with some standard answer.

Reliance to invest billions & big bet on Internet in India - What Technology, Commercial Model???? Questions but no answers..

Source: Reliance AGM

This is the basic necessity for any country in information century. Sadly enough  the country, that generating millions of Software Engineers couldn't offer a decent broadband connectivity to its people. (Ok. also water, clean air, land, sanitation, medicines, etc etc. Wait I shall say it can offer corrupted politicians & irresponsible people). Anyway the point here is about Broadband so let me focus there.

Technically speaking the wireless technology that can offer internet throughout India at cheaper rates is WiMAX. However the Ecosystem is dead for a while.

So what's the choice? Is it going to be LTE?. If they choose LTE, then the challenge is the deployment & commercial model. The LTE mobiles/smart phones are not cheap and if Reliance to build a new handphone, cost is still an issue. If it's high there won't be a critical mass. If it's cheap then it'd impact the experience. Those who used a < $ 200 touch screen smart phone knows what I am saying.

Still Internet is required at homes on Computers & Laptops. So are they going to use LTE for Fixed Internet?. Commercially this doesn't make sense. Today Mobile Operators are doing Offloading from LTE to remain profitable. So how RIL can use LTE for fixed internet ?

Even if they decided to offer as a Fixed Internet, then how they are going to connect it to Desktops/Laptops? Mi-Fi device? But this is going to be extra cost. So RIL can work with Huawei or they can even build their own. Still the cost is not going to be cheap and Mi-Fi with 24x7 (with 10-20 power outages a day) might end up in customer support centers in few months time.

Or a weird thought. Is it going to be based on Wi-Fi at City levels in a mesh interconnected with MPLS backbone? No idea..

Well,certainly I don't have any answers but will try to find out from my contacts in the industry. Will update this post then.

IDA asks OpenNet to wire Singapore quickly..

Source: CNA

Basically IDA is asking OpenNet to improve its performance. I could recall our (myself + colleagues) when we first heard about  OpenNet  plans to wire the nation by 2013.

Lets me share with a quick example. If OpenNet were to install 2,050 connections/weak then they can only do 106,600 connections in an year.

In 2010 we've close to 82% penetration in residential sector as per IDA.
In 2008 we've close to 78% penetration in Commercial sector as per IDA.

We've 1 million house holds + 381,000 registered entities in Singapore (ACRA Website).

If the target is to migrate 60% of residential market & 80% commercial sector to NBN then the target number is ~ 900,000 connections. You may ask why 60% to Fiber or 80% to commercial. My rationale of giving high % to commercial is due to the existing exorbitant charges for Business broadband connections and I believe most of the SME's migrate to NBN.


At the rate of 106,000/year it takes nine years to reach the target


You may ask why 60% to Fiber or 80% to commercial. My rationale of giving high % to commercial is due to the existing exorbitant charges for Business broadband connections and I believe most of the SME's migrate to NBN.

OpenNet not only need to do it quick but they need to ensure that the connections are 'working' & Nucleus connect need to make sure that they do activation as per schedule. Not based on their schedule but based on what was promised to Customer.

The biggest issue I've seen & experienced is the end to end synchronization.

RSP promises a date of installation but Nucleus Connect folks failed to visit. When N.C installer comes to home, then he says OpenNet fiber is dead. Pointing fingers at each other.. Delaying the installation & duplication of work.

Fiber Internet aka NGN in Singapore

Recently I got a call from Myrepublic a new entrant in to the NGN market. They claim that they are quite different from existing players and also they do not cap international bandwidth. Even the local news papers published their stories and blogs/forums were abuzz with this claims.

Though I am not against them I still believe the 'value' of Infrastructure lies with the  organization rather than pure technical play. I am happy with my existing Fiber plan (SGD 29/50Mbps from M1).

Faq from Myrepublic

Now my feedback about these claims,

1. How is MyRepublic’s Network different from other major consumer ISPs in Singapore
All major ISPs in Singapore provide both consumer and large corporate Internet services. They tend to prioritize large corporates over consumer and small business users

My View: Not entirely accurate. Both SingTel + SH maintains separate networks for Corporate & Consumers from access to core. While any operator/SP prefer business customers the claim that they prefer at the cost of residential is not quite accurate.

2. What kind of international experience can I expect?
We DO NOT discriminatively cap/rate-limit/shape/throttle per subscriber for international bandwidth, unlike other ISPs.

My View: First, I see they are offering their services to SME's which makes this claim a bit dubious.Still, the problem is not 'cap/rate-limit/shape' but in essence the "over subscription" model. Today the international bandwidth (so called connectivity with content in US) costs ~ SGD 60/Mbps/Month. So if you are getting the impression that with MyRepublic you can get full speed from Youtube/NetFlix you'll be wrong. There is no way they can pay SGD 6000 to international bandwidth and charge you SGD 60 :).

The business model is very simple. Operator buy 100Mbps @ SGD 6000. They sell to 200 people (example only. In reality some operators sell to 150 or some to 300 or 500. Typically is 1:20-40) and get SGD 12,000 in revenue. So the profit is 6000. As simple as that.

For example if you see the entire Singapore international bandwidth is 24 Gbps in 2005 (source: nationmaster). This figure includes consumer+corporate+educational. I couldn't get the breakdown and take this as the residential number.

Assuming a 500% growth it'll be 120 Gbps in 2011.Although mMy experience with the local ISP's tells me a much lower number, we'll stick to this number.

Now we've 1.235 million residential connections as per IDA. Assuming the average subscription plan is 5 Mbps we should ideally have 6,175 Gbps bandwidth or ~ 6 Tbps bandwidth.

ISP sold local bandwidth = 6,175 Gbps
ISP actual international bandwidth = 120 Gbps.
Oversubscription = 50x.

The problem with MyRepublic claim" no capping of international bandwidth" doesn't really helps as it all in the actual international bandwidth they have and the number of lines sold locally.
The best part I like from MyRepublic is "no contract". Personally this is what I hate the most with existing players and I wish I can get it in the future from these operators.

Anyway, in conclusion, I still prefer to stick with the existing operators due to the

* Service/Support
* Bundling/Ease of managing my entire communication lines
* Reliability

For the actual speeds and performance you may refer to IDA published information.

1. http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20061213184450.aspx
2. http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20061130175201.aspx

SingTel Mobile offers priority pass service - Asia's First.

Source: SingTel

As per singtel claim, the service offers better speeds( i.e. Typical speeds of 1.7 Mbps to 4.8 Mbps on a 21Mbps subscriber 80% of the times).

The cache is the 80% and whether is it on a single session or multiple sessions. I'll certainly exclude the option of asking for overseas content as the control is not within singtel hands. If they can promise the specified speeds even for a single session that'd be great.

Technically speaking the issue here is not with the limitations of technology or radio stuff, but how much money the operators are willing to spend and how much money consumers are willing to pay. Today, without doubt the problem is congestion and resource availability. Be it singtel or starhub or m1, all the networks are congested and running at high loads during peak hours. So the choice for them is to expand the network and charge the customer or persuade heavy users to offload. Challenge is the unique situation in Singapore, where mobile internet access is almost used as a replacement of fixed broadband. So offloading can be tricky.

Then, what are the alternatives?. IMO, I'd strongly suggest the Femtocell or other seamless/tightly coupled offloading solutions like i-wlan or GAN/E-GAN. Singtel can leverage on the NG-NBN and offer combo deals or packages for in-house usage. For outdoor usage, they can leverage on micro coverage/hot spots, something which is gaining lots of traction in LTE space.

Another point is the premium pass or ERP option is offered only on Dongles but for smartphones. I'd think the issue for them is the 'quantity' of smartphone on higher plans. If singtel offers on smartphones, this will be challenging for them to differentiate. If they put too high charge, people might not subscribe in quantities and those subscribed will complain like hell when they don't get the speeds. If they put too low, then end up like current situation of our express ways where ERP end up collecting money points rather than offering faster access.

Overall, not very convinced that the 'premium pass' can solve the throughput issues. It is more of adding capacity and offering at the right price point or offload to fixed network.

IPv6 in Singapore

Due to the fact that I am staying a country where technology is driven by CEO's & Mgmt, I couldn't get IPv6 or real broadband (my current subscription is USD 50 for a lame "Up to" 10 Mbps DSL plan). I've tried to get IPv6 mainly for the remote monitoring purposes of my home. The availability of home video from anywhere in the world is really something nice to have. DDNS was quite promising but in reality it failed to delivery due to various factors.
Wish the new broadband networks governments are building drive the implementation of advanced technologies to simplify the lives.