Singtel last week announced that the first batch of 5G trials for public sector, called '5G@Sentosa' are already underway at Sentosa.
5G@Sentosa is a public-private sector collaboration led by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), and Singtel. The testbed catalyses the public sector’s adoption of 5G connectivity ahead of the nationwide 5G rollout in 2025 by enabling agencies to trial use cases that improve operational effectiveness and deliver citizen-centric services.
5G will also enhance GovTech’s Smart Nation Sensor Platform, facilitating agencies’ gathering and processing of sensor data in real-time, and opening up new operational possibilities in areas such as urban planning and traffic management. Singtel plays an important role with its purpose-built network and edge cloud infrastructure in Sentosa supporting 5G application rollout on a mass scale, while Sentosa provides a unique environment as an ecosystem of leisure experiences and businesses for organisations to study and trial the viability of innovative prototypes and solutions.
A total of 10 trials have started, leveraging the lower latency, higher speed, and broader bandwidth of 5G technology for use cases in areas such as construction, manufacturing, healthcare and tourism. The Building and Construction Authority (BCA), the National Environment Agency (NEA), the Centre for Healthcare Assistive and Robotics Technologies (CHART) at Changi General Hospital, Nanyang Polytechnic, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*STAR’s) Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) are among the first wave of agencies participating in 5G@Sentosa. SDC will also partner the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in trialling infrastructure-light 5G leisure experiences in Sentosa, which could potentially be adopted by Singapore’s tourism industry.
The Government aims to have 15 live trials by public agencies running in Sentosa by the end of the year, and at least 30 by the first half of 2023.
Bill Chang,Chief Executive OfficerGroup Enterprise
The trials at Sentosa are the big ramp up in public sector use cases after the launch of Singtel’s islandwide 5G Standalone network. Our common vision with GovTech, Sentosa, and the partnering agencies is to accelerate and develop an exciting 5G eco-system. What you have seen today is a sampling of what 5G can achieve, and we welcome more agencies, businesses and eco-system partners to come on board.
