S$30m fund launched to accelerate 5G adoption, commercialisation

THE Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Wednesday launched a S$30 million fund to accelerate the adoption and commercialisation of 5G solutions.

The fund, part of IMDA's 5G Innovation Programme, will support efforts by enterprises to adopt 5G solutions that address sector challenges or enterprise-level needs.

It will also help solutions-providers and technology-developers commercialise 5G solutions to make 5G benefits more accessible to companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises, IMDA said in a statement.

IMDA chief executive Lew Chuen Hong said the statutory board is nurturing a 5G ecosystem that goes beyond infrastructure; it will include industry partnerships to develop 5G talent, as well as solutions and services to drive 5G adoption.

"5G is a key enabler for Singapore's digital future, and I am encouraged to see our 5G partnerships with industry demonstrating good results, such as through more efficient and reliable port operations, and good progress on the ongoing trials," he said.

The IMDA previously supported 5G innovation use cases such as cloud gaming, urban mobility, smart estates, industry 4.0 and maritime operations.

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In 2019, it partnered maritime sector leads Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore and PSA Singapore to identify problems and explore how 5G technologies can be applied in the maritime sector.

A technology call to develop 5G use cases at Pasir Panjang Terminal was awarded to M1 and Singtel to test 5G for automated guided vehicles and automated rubber-tyred gantry cranes.

IMDA said it will also support a new use case by M1, Continental Automotive Singapore and JTC to trial the use of autonomous mobile robots and construction safety analytics using 5G. These trials will be carried out at the Jurong Innovation District.