M1 200 Mbps Fibre home broadband speeds - measured by Samknows

WoW.. that's all I can say. NGN brought a great change to the market. I still remember the "student plan" in early part of 2000 which used to give 35 hours free Dial-Up for $20. Or the 256Kbps unlimited DSL for $55.

Now I am using a 200Mbps fiber connection and it comes with a 'unlimited' calls to singapore phones too. Oh yeah, a Wi-Fi router thrown for free as well. All this for $39 per month. It's slightly expensive compared to my original $31 plan for 50Mbps but I see it's a good bargain. The Wireless router costs atleast 50 in market and if I take it over 24 months contract period, it's already 2/month. So effectively I am paying ~$37.

I've a throughput measurement device at home, thanks to IDA/Samknows and below is the screenshots taken. As you can see the speeds to local content hits almost 200Mbps. Not only the automated tests, but when I try to download from microsoft or Google documents, I can hit 170-180Mbps which is more than sufficient.

So some tips.

• First and foremost, make sure there are no Fast Ethernet equipment that limits your throughput to 100Mbps theoretical max. Every thing must be a min Gigabit Ethernet or GigE that can run at 1000Mbps.
• Check your Router, Computer NIC card etc
• Most important / often missed. Physical cables. If your LAN cable is cat-5 then that's another bottle neck. Min Cat5e or Cat6 is needed
• No Wi-Fi. My Wi-Fi gives me a max of 120Mbps but again that's not consistent. I've attached a Wi-Fi heatmap of my home and you can understand why I can't hit more than that ;)

So that's all. I don't plug in my notebook all the times to a physical cable but this is good enough speed for me on Wi-Fi. 

Only grouse with M1 is the billing system. Over the 26 months of relation, I had more than 5 billing issues. It's minor ($2 or 1) but it takes away the confidence. That's all folks..

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.

Canadian regulation on Net Neutrality (Applicable to Mobile too)

Previously I've talked about net neutrality in Singapore here and the COP in UK here. Today I came across the net neutrality regulation framework in canada. The pressrelease and info can be found here

The surprising part is the date of release in in 2009 which means Canadians have the regulation developed almost a good one and half year back. In summary,

* ITMP (Internet traffic management practices) should be transparent when employed
* Overall ISP's should invest in network to avoid congestion. However they can implement certain ITMP to manage at certain points.
* When they are employed they MUST be designed to address a DEFINED need and nothing more.
* Applicable to Mobile broadband.

If I've to compare this to our current situation in Singapore, I've very little positive words to mention. Today we've very 'generic' definitions on what will be controlled/blocked/throttled and at what times. Also the impact to individual customer is not clearly communicated (ISP's say that they throttle to certain % out of their capacity. So if one customer is just downloading a legal linux distro, his connection may be throttled to few kbps if the ISP sees a specific threshold met based on cumulative P2P usage).

Hope IDA will look in to this ( I wish together with IPv6) in the near future.

Cost/Reach gap. Good post from Cisco Blog

Here is an excellent post from cisco blog, and it talks about the "Cost/Reach" gap. Today most of the organizations be it public or private or finding themselves increased responsibilities/requirements while their ability to pay is reduced. This was not new to Singapore as our labor head put it in our slang, Cheaper, Better, Faster. While this is targeted at the employers, and true to certain extent what I'd love to see is the governments & large organizations adapting the same and taking the lead for rest of the small players.

I've mentioned that in Singapore we are lagging in adopting new technologies due to various reasons, and this is where the public sector can play a very good role. They can show the rest, that by adapting new technologies they can cut cost and pass on their savings to the public.

IDA-Singapore to issue code of practice for Service Providers (SRII-CoP)

IDA will be issuing code of practise for Service Providers to bolster Secure & Resilient Internet infrastructure. As per the statement,

The Code covers the protection of the core Internet infrastructure such as routers, switches and critical network components, and details the objectives and controls essential to prevent, detect and respond to security incidents. These requirements, which are consistent with internationally recognised standards and best practices for the industry, will put the ISPs in good stead and provide assurance to their consumers.

I couldn't find a copy in IDA website but I strongly support the initiative and IMO it could've been done years back. I've a strong belief that the code (SRII-CoP) is modeled something like the NIST/CIS recommendations. If IDA include the requirement to protect the customers (e.g. Anti Spam, Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, DDOS etc) that'd be the best from IDA in recent years. This should be offered free of cost, as this is becoming basic and even Google offers some sort of protection by giving a warning if we try to visit a site with malware/spyware. IMO, ISP's need to invest some money to protect their customers and the ROI for them is most likely 'less calls to their contact centers'.

Hope IDA releases the document for public so we can understand the details and also create new documents/recommendations to secure Routers & Firewalls in Enterprise networks. This will greatly help SME's and other organizations to work on a common benchmarking framework.

Net neutrality in Singapore

CNA published that local telco's are not in support to publish the "average speeds" but prefer to use "max speeds".  While I tend to agree with the argument that it's quite difficult to provide average speeds in an objective manner I am surprised to see the replies from our three telco's. The way they responded gives me a very bad impression on them.

They say the market is highly competitive, they are transparent, they don't block or discriminate unwanted traffic & IDA should spend tax payers money to educate Customers so they won't complain (then result in more profits to TELCO's because even 100Mbps plan can give 1Kbps and Customer is 'educated' to accept it).

The new entrant Super internet reply is not that detailed by they shared the fact that the international bandwidth for 100Mbps costs $3,000+ and residential charges by ISP's are less than 100 so there is no way end customer can get 100Mbps from US. This answer is quite straight forward.

Anyways there are multitude of factors that an end customer cannot get the speed he/she is subscribed to. If it's wired broadband,

* PC/Notebook issues
* Home wi-fi coverage issues
* Home wiring issues (like powerline etc)
* Last mile cabling issues
* ISP Servers/Routers congestion
* ISP uplink congestion
* International issues (e.g. submarine cable failure etc)

Wireless broadband or Mobile broadband the issues are similar but on top of it being a shared network,

* Number of people using the specific base station.

But all of the issues does have a solution. This is to invest more in the network. Today our TELCO's margins are in very healthy ranges (here). If they want to accept lower margins they can invest in the network. Also they can invest in removing process wastage so they can reduce their operating costs. Anyway i'll wait for IDA decision and meanwhile, I've pasted the replies from our three telco's + super internet (because these guys are the first one's in NG-NBN)


SingTel
Furthermore, SingTel submits that bespoke regulation in the Internet services market in Singapore is necessary for the following reason:

- The Internet services market is highly competitive in Singapore;
- Existing  levels  of  regulation  are  sufficient  to  address  potential  anti-competitive conduct;
- Services  providers  should  be  free  to  manage  the  efficiency  of  their  networks, improve customer experience and innovate to facilitate high-quality applications;
- SingTel  complies  with  prevailing  to  publish  service  information  and  network management practices; and
- SingTel  already  complies  with  minimum  QoS  standards  and  is  transparent  in terms of its network management techniques;
- The publication of average or expected speeds is counter-productive and likely to confuse consumers.

StarHub

StarHub submits that developments in the local internet access service market have been healthy and that concerns over blocking or discriminatory treatment of internet traffic and content are unfounded

StarHub is concerned over IDA's proposal to provide added transparency to end-users by requiring ISPs and telecom network operators to publish an "expected average internet access speed" indicator. The inclusion of an expected average internet access speed is very subjective and cannot be estimated with a fair degree of accuracy. We would instead propose the continuation of IDA's residential broadband speed tests.

M1

In summary, M1 proposes:
* No change to existing policy position or approach on net neutrality;
* No  publication  of  misleading  information  such  as  “average  Internet  access  speed”  or “expected Internet access speed”; and
* Improve public education on broadband internet  services, thereby  raising the level of understanding on factors affecting the provision such telecommunication services. 


Super Internet

International IP Transit pricing today for 1Gbps out of Singapore is approximately US$20/Mbps/mth. Furthermore, trunk link pricing works out to S$4.10/Mbps/mth. With consumer pricing for “100Mbps” services at a level far below $3,110/mth, it is undeniable that there is oversubscription and therefore potential, if not actual, congestion in all networks. It therefore remains to be considered what measures ought to be allowable for management of this congestion.

Source: http://www.ida.gov.sg/Policies%20and%20Regulation/20070612111424.aspx