Infocomm sector grows 8.6% in 2022; new digital connectivity blueprint to support further growth

SINGAPORE’S information and communications sector grew 8.6 per cent in 2022, outpacing the 3.6 per cent growth clocked by the overall economy, according to a new Digital Connectivity Blueprint unveiled on Monday (Jun 5).

The new blueprint, which will support the industry’s continued expansion, was drafted by both the Ministry of Communications and Information and Infocomm Media Development Authority.

It was released by Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo ahead of the annual Asia Tech x Singapore Summit, which starts on Tuesday.

Teo noted that digital connectivity infrastructure may require long lead times to build up capacity, while demand tends to grow in spurts.

“If we insisted that all digital infrastructure investments be made just-in-time, there will be too many missed opportunities,” she said.

She added that the blueprint’s plans will put the country in a better position to seize opportunities from emerging tech trends in areas such as generative artificial intelligence and autonomous systems.

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As part of the blueprint, the government will develop three digital infrastructure “stacks”: hard infrastructure, physical-digital infrastructure and soft infrastructure.

Within the realm of hard infrastructure, the government hopes to improve traditional connectivity. This includes submarine, satellite, broadband, mobile and Wi-Fi networks.

The blueprint commits to providing the capacity to double the number of submarine cable landings within the next 10 years. Telegeography data shows that Singapore currently has 26 cables landed.

“This will potentially catalyse at least S$10 billion in overall submarine cable investments, strengthening digital connectivity between Singapore, South-east Asia and the rest of the world,” the blueprint said.

The government will also look to build seamless “end-to-end” 10 Gbps domestic connectivity within the next five years.

This will include moves to allocate spectrum to both faster Wi-Fi networks and to 5G standalone networks, which will enable a smooth “handover” between the different modes of connectivity and facilitate innovative use cases.

In addition, the ministry aims to achieve full 5G standalone coverage at Singapore’s offshore coast by mid-2025.

The ministry also has plans for local data centres and cloud computing to meet growing demands for data computation and storage.

These include a road map for data centres to develop sustainably and be more energy efficient, which it believes could require between S$10 billion and S$12 billion to materialise.

As for physical-digital infrastructure, the government hopes to enable greater interaction between different digital infrastructure components and their physical counterparts.

Examples of such initiatives are the Open Digital Platform at Punggol Digital District. The platform will connect different district systems and allow the sharing of data and control functions through an interoperability layer.

“It also uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimise utility and manpower resources to achieve sustainability targets and supports smart business operations like robotics,” the blueprint said.

With soft infrastructure, the government will look to scale up the Singapore Digital Utility (DU) stack.

This stack includes the verification of digital identities, e-payments and e-invoicing, document attestations and data exchanges.

Just as the electricity grid powers homes and offices, the government sees DUs as the foundation upon which participants can engage in the digital economy.

Companies can build on top of existing DUs such as SingPass, PayNow, OpenAttestation and Singapore Data Exchange to create innovative digital solutions.

Beyond these strategic priorities, the government will also move into more “nascent and frontier” areas.

For instance, it will pilot quantum-safe networks and Quantum-as-a-Service solutions to commercial customers under its National Quantum Safe Network Plus initiative.

Other focus areas include using autonomous systems to boost productivity, lowering the energy intensity of applications, and using Low Earth Orbit satellite services to innovate and improve Singapore’s competitiveness.

Notably, the blueprint was developed together with individuals and organisations in the industry.

Co-chair of the advisory panel on digital infrastructure and Western Digital executive vice-president of global operations Irving Tan said that while the killer application is not clear yet for certain use cases, the advisory panel’s members gave good insights on where different industry verticals are headed.

For instance, logistics and advanced manufacturing players will increasingly use autonomous systems that require high bandwidth, low latency connectivity.

“The one experience I have, especially in the networking world, (is that) no matter how much bandwidth you put out there, some smart people will find a way to consume it,” he said.