Singapore sets sights on being 5G innovation hub

Singapore

SINGAPORE cannot be happy just building towers when it comes to fifth-generation - or 5G - mobile technology, said Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran.

To that end, the government has pledged an initial S$40 million to fund research and innovation in uses for 5G, which he has dubbed the "key digital infrastructure of tomorrow".

Besides developing systems and networks, the Republic must also become "a global node for innovation in secure 5G applications and services", Mr Iswaran told event-goers at the two-day Innovfest Unbound symposium on Thursday.

The latest amount - which was set aside for the coming year but could be topped up again - will go towards exploring 5G applications that are deemed to have strong growth potential and global opportunities.

Six clusters - maritime operations, urban mobility, smart estates, manufacturing, public sector applications and the consumer sector - will generate the most value for Singapore and could be exported, the minister said.

"We cannot be content with merely building systems and networks," Mr Iswaran said. "A thriving 5G ecosystem requires an environment that is conducive to innovation in developing cutting-edge use cases, as well as open test beds to enable ecosystem sharing and capability development."

For a start, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will set up the first public 5G open test-bed at its Pixel facility in one-north. The lab, slated to open by the first half of next year, will be "a living test bed for companies to experiment with and trial 5G use cases in a supportive regulatory environment", especially in immersive media and electronic gaming, Mr Iswaran said.

Meanwhile, cyber security will be an early focus for 5G research spending, the IMDA has told the press.

It will join forces with the National Research Foundation and Cyber Security Agency on this, with more research funding for other areas of 5G research - such as network technology - to be announced in time.

Mark Jansen, technology, media and telecommunications leader at PwC, said that resilient 5G networks will be "integral to national security".

"As such, R&D (research and development) efforts should also look into developing cyber security for 5G that will protect both enterprises and countries," he told The Business Times.

Mr Jansen added that private companies, which can already expect to fork out more than S$10 million on R&D for Internet of Things solutions, should be prepared to spend more on 5G as there are more use cases and Singapore - an attractive test location with regional ambitions - would draw higher investment than elsewhere.

The latest news out of Singapore came even as Moody's Investors Service noted in a report that network operators in leading Asia-Pacific markets - such as South Korea, China, Japan and Australia - have seen 5G efforts benefit from government measures such as spectrum fee waivers, and infrastructure and funding plans.

Just the day before, Mr Iswaran had opened a new government joint office that will work towards adding up to 10,000 tech jobs in three years. The IMDA expects early 5G networks to be available here by next year, but wide-scale deployment may be possible only from 2023.

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