April 10, 2009 - 3:43am
Today we are talking about Singapore. That is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile Singapore is one of the Four Asian Tigers along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. This year it was ranked by Economist Intelligence Unit as the 10th most expensive city in the world for living. And Singapore city is considered as the 3rd most expensive Asian city to live in, after Japanese Tokyo and Osaka. So let’s see what stage the Internet and e-commerce infrastructure could reach in such a miniature but wealthy state.
Singapore was the first country in the world that in November 1997 commercially rolled out ADSL when SingTel launched its ATM-based "SingTel Magix" service. The same year Singapore Cable Vision started trails for its cable modem based services, before its commercial deployment in December 1999. Singtel's ADSL service was subsequently rolled out on a nation-wide scale in 2000. For all that, after being a pioneer the country unexpectedly left leading positions on the broadband market for South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. However, over the last few years Singapore has moved rapidly to build a substantial broadband base. Today Singapore is a well positioned country to pretend to the leadership in this infrastructure as it has a sound Internet industry and commitment to development of its broadband capabilities. Singapore continues to be one of the few countries in the World where the broadband internet access is readily available to just about any user across the country, with connectivity of over 99%.
There are four major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Singapore: SingNet, StarHub Internet, Pacnet and MobileOne. Although liberalization resulted in the entry of a host of new operators into the market and has created a competitive situation, SingTel (Singapore Telecommunications) continues to play a major role in this sector. Thus the STIX (Singapore Telecom Internet Exchange) provides more than 35 ISPs in more than 35 Asian and Pacific region states with Internet access. Singapore now has more than 35 ISPs and more than 90 resellers. The government has also supported the development of this sector, thus for example, it put in place the world’s first nationwide broadband network, SingaporeONE. Over the years, the Singapore Government has been promoting the usage of broadband internet access, as part of its Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) masterplan.
In 1999 Singapore government established a unit of National Computer Board and the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore under the name of the Infocomm Development Authority (or IDA). The main goal of the IDA was to develop, promote and regulate information communications in the country. In the year 2006 IDA introduced a program named "Wireless@SG". It is part of its Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure initiative. Users could enjoy free, both in-door and outdoor seamless wireless broadband access with speeds of up to 512 kbit/s at most public areas. Previously Wireless broadband service was introduced by Pacific Internet in 2001. MobileOne also presented its broadband services in 2006.
Below there is a list of the most popular Internet Service Providers grouped per the industry categories.
Dial-up service providers:
• SingNet (speed: 56kbit/s, 112kbit/s (using multilink), mysingtel)
• StarHub (56kbit/s)
• Pacnet (56kbit/s)
ADSL providers:
• SingNet (plans: 1 Mbit/s, 3 Mbit/s, 8 Mbit/s, 10 Mbit/s, 25 Mbit/s, JetPack, Magix)
• StarHub (variety of plans but they are only available to business users in the CBD area)
• Pacnet (512 kbit/s plans)
Cable broadband providers:
• StarHub (plans: 2 Mbit/s, 8 Mbit/s, 12 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s)
• Pacnet (plans: 8 Mbit/s, 12 Mbit/s, 30 Mbit/s)
• MobileOne (plans: 10 Mbit/s, 15 Mbit/s, 30 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s)
Wireless Broadband (HSDPA and Wimax) providers:
• MobileOne (plans: 1 Mbit/s, 2 Mbit/s, 4 Mbit/s, 7.2Mbit/s)
• Qmax (plans: 256kbit/s 512kbit/s, 1 Mbit/s, 1.5Mbit/s)
• StarHub (plans: 2Mbit/s, 7.2Mbit/s)
• Pacnet (plans: 512 kbit/s)
• SingTel (plans: 1 Mbit/s, 2 Mbit/s, 3.6 Mbit/s)
Wireless@SG (Wi-Fi) operators (up to 512 kbit/s):
• iCELL
• Qmax
• SingTel
• StarHub
The two-year registration in the zone of Singapore top-level domain, or ccTLD, .sg will cost $159.00 and $169.00 for .com (as http://www.rwgusa.com shows).
As for Internet usage statistics, it’s important to say that today more than half of Singaporeans has Internet access as internetworldstat.com reflects. Thus in 2008 3,104,900 Singaporeans used Internet actively making up 67,4% of the whole population. This figure can be compared with the amount of 1,200,000 (or 36.8 % of the population) in 2000, followed by the volume of 2,421,800 (66.3 %) in 2006. Therefore these figures reflect a 158,7% increase for the period of 2000-2008. However in spite of being one of the leaders on the broadband market Internet penetration makes up just 0.5 % of the total in Asia, mainly because of the country’s small size.
So, now a few words about e-commerce as one of the stages in Internet industry progress. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit e-commerce transactions in Singapore are presented by business-to-business (B2B) order processing, invoicing and payment, and business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping, online trading and e-banking. As it was estimated by the information-technology research consultancy International Data Corp, almost 80% of all e-commerce transactions in Singapore in 2007 belonged to B2B.
As globaltechforum.eiu.com says Singapore has also become home to three leading B2B electronic-procurement and marketplace technology players: Ariba, CommerceOne and FreeMarkets. The presence of these players will encourage more B2B exchanges to set up operations and will develop Singapore into a virtual marketplace where buyers and merchant can transact and communicate via the Internet. Moreover, Singapore’s IT industry and financial institutions have collaborated with the government to advance Internet infrastructure services such as trust and security systems, directory services, online-payment systems and other intermediary e-commerce services.
The National Internet Advisory Committee in 1998 created an e-Commerce Consumer Protection Code in order to strengthen the shopping experience of consumers and establish public confidence in e-commerce, by protecting their personal information. It was adopted in 1999 by the CaseTrust, a joint project operated by CASE, the Retail Promotion Centre and CommerceNet Singapore. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Singapore has a three-pronged approach to Internet content regulation:
• a light-touch class license scheme that provides minimum standards to safeguard values and promote healthy growth;
• encouragement of industry self-regulation;
• an active public-education program to promote parental supervision.
So, content owners that publish their content on the Internet are automatically licensed under the Singapore Broadcasting Authority’s Class License Scheme. Under the scheme, ISPs and content providers must comply with an Internet Code of Practice. However, Singapore does not regulate personal communications, such as e-mail or Internet relay chat, personal websites and corporate Internet used by employees or for business transactions.
Singapore government imposes tax on incomes and profits of all businesses, including e-business. The profit earned through e-commerce from tangible goods through an overseas branch of a company based in Singapore is not taxable if it is not remitted back to Singapore. For intangible goods for a Singaporean company that sets up a website in a foreign country, the profits earned are taxable in Singapore. Online merchants who sell goods and services via the Internet are expected to pay the standard 5% goods and services tax (GST) if their products were sold in a shop. If the goods are delivered to customers outside Singapore, however, the trader may zero-rate his supply. For goods sold in Singapore from outside the country, GST is collected from the party bringing in the goods.
Singapore Internet and e-commerce market has continued to develop by leaps and bounds. And though the country suffered from the 2001-2003 downturn, and the global economic recession consequences, as well as most of the sates throughout the world did, Singapore still manages to retain leading positions in most of its economic areas, including Internet and e-commerce infrastructure. One of the smallest countries of the world, Singapore, prides itself on the way it has embraced the Internet and related spheres, aggressively capturing leadership in the Asia-Pacific region.
Singapore was the first country in the world that in November 1997 commercially rolled out ADSL when SingTel launched its ATM-based "SingTel Magix" service. The same year Singapore Cable Vision started trails for its cable modem based services, before its commercial deployment in December 1999. Singtel's ADSL service was subsequently rolled out on a nation-wide scale in 2000. For all that, after being a pioneer the country unexpectedly left leading positions on the broadband market for South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. However, over the last few years Singapore has moved rapidly to build a substantial broadband base. Today Singapore is a well positioned country to pretend to the leadership in this infrastructure as it has a sound Internet industry and commitment to development of its broadband capabilities. Singapore continues to be one of the few countries in the World where the broadband internet access is readily available to just about any user across the country, with connectivity of over 99%.
There are four major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Singapore: SingNet, StarHub Internet, Pacnet and MobileOne. Although liberalization resulted in the entry of a host of new operators into the market and has created a competitive situation, SingTel (Singapore Telecommunications) continues to play a major role in this sector. Thus the STIX (Singapore Telecom Internet Exchange) provides more than 35 ISPs in more than 35 Asian and Pacific region states with Internet access. Singapore now has more than 35 ISPs and more than 90 resellers. The government has also supported the development of this sector, thus for example, it put in place the world’s first nationwide broadband network, SingaporeONE. Over the years, the Singapore Government has been promoting the usage of broadband internet access, as part of its Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) masterplan.
In 1999 Singapore government established a unit of National Computer Board and the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore under the name of the Infocomm Development Authority (or IDA). The main goal of the IDA was to develop, promote and regulate information communications in the country. In the year 2006 IDA introduced a program named "Wireless@SG". It is part of its Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure initiative. Users could enjoy free, both in-door and outdoor seamless wireless broadband access with speeds of up to 512 kbit/s at most public areas. Previously Wireless broadband service was introduced by Pacific Internet in 2001. MobileOne also presented its broadband services in 2006.
Below there is a list of the most popular Internet Service Providers grouped per the industry categories.
Dial-up service providers:
• SingNet (speed: 56kbit/s, 112kbit/s (using multilink), mysingtel)
• StarHub (56kbit/s)
• Pacnet (56kbit/s)
ADSL providers:
• SingNet (plans: 1 Mbit/s, 3 Mbit/s, 8 Mbit/s, 10 Mbit/s, 25 Mbit/s, JetPack, Magix)
• StarHub (variety of plans but they are only available to business users in the CBD area)
• Pacnet (512 kbit/s plans)
Cable broadband providers:
• StarHub (plans: 2 Mbit/s, 8 Mbit/s, 12 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s)
• Pacnet (plans: 8 Mbit/s, 12 Mbit/s, 30 Mbit/s)
• MobileOne (plans: 10 Mbit/s, 15 Mbit/s, 30 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s)
Wireless Broadband (HSDPA and Wimax) providers:
• MobileOne (plans: 1 Mbit/s, 2 Mbit/s, 4 Mbit/s, 7.2Mbit/s)
• Qmax (plans: 256kbit/s 512kbit/s, 1 Mbit/s, 1.5Mbit/s)
• StarHub (plans: 2Mbit/s, 7.2Mbit/s)
• Pacnet (plans: 512 kbit/s)
• SingTel (plans: 1 Mbit/s, 2 Mbit/s, 3.6 Mbit/s)
Wireless@SG (Wi-Fi) operators (up to 512 kbit/s):
• iCELL
• Qmax
• SingTel
• StarHub
The two-year registration in the zone of Singapore top-level domain, or ccTLD, .sg will cost $159.00 and $169.00 for .com (as http://www.rwgusa.com shows).
As for Internet usage statistics, it’s important to say that today more than half of Singaporeans has Internet access as internetworldstat.com reflects. Thus in 2008 3,104,900 Singaporeans used Internet actively making up 67,4% of the whole population. This figure can be compared with the amount of 1,200,000 (or 36.8 % of the population) in 2000, followed by the volume of 2,421,800 (66.3 %) in 2006. Therefore these figures reflect a 158,7% increase for the period of 2000-2008. However in spite of being one of the leaders on the broadband market Internet penetration makes up just 0.5 % of the total in Asia, mainly because of the country’s small size.
So, now a few words about e-commerce as one of the stages in Internet industry progress. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit e-commerce transactions in Singapore are presented by business-to-business (B2B) order processing, invoicing and payment, and business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping, online trading and e-banking. As it was estimated by the information-technology research consultancy International Data Corp, almost 80% of all e-commerce transactions in Singapore in 2007 belonged to B2B.
As globaltechforum.eiu.com says Singapore has also become home to three leading B2B electronic-procurement and marketplace technology players: Ariba, CommerceOne and FreeMarkets. The presence of these players will encourage more B2B exchanges to set up operations and will develop Singapore into a virtual marketplace where buyers and merchant can transact and communicate via the Internet. Moreover, Singapore’s IT industry and financial institutions have collaborated with the government to advance Internet infrastructure services such as trust and security systems, directory services, online-payment systems and other intermediary e-commerce services.
The National Internet Advisory Committee in 1998 created an e-Commerce Consumer Protection Code in order to strengthen the shopping experience of consumers and establish public confidence in e-commerce, by protecting their personal information. It was adopted in 1999 by the CaseTrust, a joint project operated by CASE, the Retail Promotion Centre and CommerceNet Singapore. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Singapore has a three-pronged approach to Internet content regulation:
• a light-touch class license scheme that provides minimum standards to safeguard values and promote healthy growth;
• encouragement of industry self-regulation;
• an active public-education program to promote parental supervision.
So, content owners that publish their content on the Internet are automatically licensed under the Singapore Broadcasting Authority’s Class License Scheme. Under the scheme, ISPs and content providers must comply with an Internet Code of Practice. However, Singapore does not regulate personal communications, such as e-mail or Internet relay chat, personal websites and corporate Internet used by employees or for business transactions.
Singapore government imposes tax on incomes and profits of all businesses, including e-business. The profit earned through e-commerce from tangible goods through an overseas branch of a company based in Singapore is not taxable if it is not remitted back to Singapore. For intangible goods for a Singaporean company that sets up a website in a foreign country, the profits earned are taxable in Singapore. Online merchants who sell goods and services via the Internet are expected to pay the standard 5% goods and services tax (GST) if their products were sold in a shop. If the goods are delivered to customers outside Singapore, however, the trader may zero-rate his supply. For goods sold in Singapore from outside the country, GST is collected from the party bringing in the goods.
Singapore Internet and e-commerce market has continued to develop by leaps and bounds. And though the country suffered from the 2001-2003 downturn, and the global economic recession consequences, as well as most of the sates throughout the world did, Singapore still manages to retain leading positions in most of its economic areas, including Internet and e-commerce infrastructure. One of the smallest countries of the world, Singapore, prides itself on the way it has embraced the Internet and related spheres, aggressively capturing leadership in the Asia-Pacific region.