BESIDES faster Internet access, Singapore's ultra high-speed broadband highway could also help alleviate the peak-hour rush as authorities are now looking into having more home-based jobs when the new network is in place.
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Ministry of Manpower are in discussions to see how they can potentially increase the number of work-from-home options with the arrival of the Next Gen NBN (Next-Generation Nationwide Broadband Network), said Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew.
Homemakers can also participate or rejoin the workforce through such flexible working arrangements, he added.
Mr Lui was speaking at the opening of Infocomm Experience (iExperience) Centre yesterday, a new 435 square-metre facility which has been set up by the IDA.
Located at the new Esplanade Xchange, it aims to give Singaporeans a glimpse of what high-speed broadband connectivity can bring to homes and businesses.
Singapore is in the midst of being wired up with new fibre-optic links by a company called OpenNet, a joint venture between Singapore Telecommunications, Canadian firm Axia Netmedia, Singapore Press Holdings and SP Telecom. The company expects to reach 60 per cent of local homes by the end of this year.
Once completed in end 2012, it will boost local Internet speeds by ten times or more and power new services such as telemedicine and high-definition videoconferencing.
A sample of these applications is currently on show at the new centre, which the public can visit for free from next month.
The IDA declined to reveal the amount it invested into the project but said it hopes to attract a 'few hundred thousand visitors' a year.
'Many people have asked what the Next Gen NBN is about. The iExperience Centre provides some of the answers to these questions,' said Mr Lui.
- The Business Times
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