t e c h i e - t a l k s ::: technology at its best

It’s coming to 2008, a year after Singapore’s move to a wireless broadband nation through the launch of Wireless@SG. So how has Wireless@SG fare since it’s rather quiet launch early this year? Some would say that it didn’t live up to expectation and it was a failure. Well, I beg to differ.

When the prime minister, Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, announced that Singapore is going wireless (as part of the Next Generation National Infocomm Networks) late last year, I was aesthetically happy. With a wireless device and a nationwide wireless broadband network, the possibilities are limitless.

Background on Wireless@SG

Starting from 2007, Wireless@SG will be free for a period of 3 years (it was 2 years but they extended it). However, free wireless services are limited to 512Kbps although one can opt for a premium service with a small price tag. This premium service offers speeds up to 1Mbps.

Currently, there are three players providing the wireless service. Namely, they are iCell, Singtel and Qmax. There are about 5000 wireless hot-spots around the island. Most of these hot-spots are limited to a certain area, namely fast-food restaurants, coffee-joints, selected eateries, some shopping malls, public libraries, hospitals, community centres and selected bus-interchanges.

Users who want to connect to the wireless services have to register online first. One can register to any of the network providers. Users who are currently subscribing to broadband connections can use their broadband username and password to log into the Wireless@SG virtual private network.

The Advantages of having Wireless@SG.

The most obvious advantage is of course, mobility. Since it is easy to connect to the internet islandwide, there’s probably nothing to stop you from doing almost anything possible online. From video conferencing to VoIP. You can watch YouTube, do bank transactions online (but I still prefer to do it in the safety of my home network), P2P and the list goes on. Businesses thrive on mobility. Thus, it’s a huge plus factor for those in need of a mobile internet connection.

Wireless@SG provides broadband access to almost everyone in Singapore (provided that they have a WiFi enabled device). However, land-line broadband access is relatively cheap here in Singapore (can even be more expensive than dial-up services) and it is widely available islandwide. Therefore, other than mobility, there’s nothing much to brag about. This is different from situations overseas where it is more expensive to extend cables outside urban areas as compared to providing wireless broadband services (for example WiMax).

Setbacks of Wireless@SG

Sadly, Wireless@SG is not free of problems (well, you can’t expect a perfect implementation). One of the problems that most users face (in fact it is the most noticeable and absolutely irritating) is the inability to stay connected. Personally, I find this the biggest setback of the whole idea of an islandwide wireless connection. Not forgetting that WiFi is wireless fidelity and not wireless in-fidelity! Geez.. The problem doesn’t lie with the signal that my WiFi receiver is getting. In my personal experience at different locations, even at full signal strength, I’ll get disconnected. The first symptom of an upcoming disconnection is a slow loading webpage. Then, the browser will return a timeout connection. And when you refresh your browser, you’ll be greeted with the same-irritating-login-page again. Your MSN (or whatever chat clients) will be disconnected when this happens. Surprisingly, this happens without a drop of signal strength.

Hence, I am not sure whether the router disconnects a user after a certain period of time or whether is there any technical glitch.

In most cases, Wireless@SG does not live up to its published speeds. Download speeds are kind of sluggish most of the times and response time is not very good (so you can’t expect to play an online game one a server). Most of the times, download speeds only reach up to 100++ Kbps (provided you get a good connection and there are limited users sharing the connection). I guess it’s not much to ask for since it’s a free service. Furthermore, it still provides broadband connection anyway.

On top of under-rated speeds, there are many complaints regarding the quality of WiFi connection in the hotspot zones (try google Wireless@SG+problems). The reason is simple. One router to a large room with thick walls won’t yield 100% signal strength at areas which are blocked. Furthermore, there will be some areas in the room which will experience the “dead zone”. Dead zones are areas in the WiFi hotspots that do not get good quality signals or no coverage at all. This happens when there is a cancellation of signals as these signals destructively converge at that spot.

Lastly, Wireless@SG isn’t a “true wireless” service. One is still limited to the vicinity of the WiFi coverage. Hence, if you want to surf at your residential void deck, you are left with two options. Tap into someone else’s network (some residents still do not bother to encrypt their wireless connection) or subscribe to wireless broadband available (like WiMax and HSDPA aka 3.5G) locally. However, the latter needs a modem (typically a USB plug-and-play modem) and it isn’t free!

Conclusion

Although Wireless@SG has provided Singaporeans and people residing in Singapore a free wireless service, more can still be done to improve this free service. It’s not a matter of whether it is free and thus you shouldn’t complain that the service is bad. It is a matter of providing the needed service! Why roll out a detailed contingency plan for a wireless internet service when you don’t even put much effort into providing that service? People will just loose faith in Wireless@SG (although they’ll still use it when & because it’s free) and the whole idea of a 2015 infocomm initiative.

The whole idea of a wireless Singapore is a superb idea. A small cosmopolitan city like Singapore (who wants to be a regional hub for almost everything I can think of) will truly benefit from this initiative by IDA. However, it will only benefit when the cards are played correctly. More have to be done to improve the connectivity issues on top of the wide area coverage issues. Install more wireless APs, deal with the intermittent connectivity issue or even change strategy if you must!

Wireless@SG is will not fail because the demand is there. However, should the Wireless@SG initiative be limited to WiFi hotspots? Remember that WiFi has a limited coverage. There could be other technologies that can compliment WiFi coverage, for example WiMax or HSDPA.

It is a dream to have a wireless connection anywhere on the island through Wireless@SG (I’m not talking about paid services here). I guess the whole idea behind Wireless@SG is mobility. Although it does provide mobility to a certain extent, there is still that hotspot zone restriction that hinders true mobility. Hence, the objective of Wireless@SG is somewhat not thoroughly met yet. Therefore, we can’t really judge that Wireless@SG is a failure. It just needs more oomph to get it going further!

My advice is — get more engineers to test out networks at participating Wireless@SG hot-spots and fix problems if any. It will be too exhaustive to go to all 5000+ places. Hence, make a feedback system available for users in the Wireless@SG VPN where they can choose their outlets to feedback problems faced, etc. Or you can employ people to test out these wireless networks (similar to the “mystery shoppers” kinda job).