Singtel launches near-gigabit mobile data speeds at selected outdoor locations

SINGTEL is launching, in phases, near-gigabit speeds of 800 Mbps on its LTE advanced network at selected high-traffic outdoor locations in Singapore.

On Friday, the telco announced that customers with Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphones will be able to utilise the 800 Mbps peak speeds at Shaw Centre, ION Orchard and Tang Plaza at Orchard Road.

The near-gigabit transmission speeds are achieved by scaling pre-5G technology solutions, 4x4 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output and 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, coupled with triple carrier aggregation of spectrum exclusive to Singtel, the company said.

Full deployment at Orchard Road, Raffles Place and Clarke Quay is slated for the end of August. More Cat 16 smartphones supporting one Gbps speeds are scheduled to be launched later this year. [1]

At 800 Mbps, it is South-east Asia's fastest gigabit-class LTE mobile data peak speed, delivering up to 60 per cent faster download speeds than prevailing LTE services[2], Singtel said.

Mark Chong, group chief technology officer, Singtel, said that the company looks forward to rolling out more network technology enhancements this year.

On July 10, Singtel, the parent company of NetLink NBN Trust which made its debut on the main board of the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday, announced that it priced the initial public offering (IPO) of the trust at S$0.81 per unit.

NetLink's midday trading price was S$0.805 on Friday, which was also its closing price on Thursday.