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Infocomm
Overview
The Infocomm sector in Singapore has come a long way since 1981 when the National Computer Board (NCB) was set up to develop the local IT industry and a pool of local IT manpower to support a thriving high-tech industry. NCB sought to transform Singapore into an intelligent island with IT pervading every sphere of economic and social activity. At the same time, the Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS) was corporatised in 1992 as the regulator of the telecom and postal industries, to ensure the provision of high standards of telecommunication and postal services at reasonable prices and to guide the transition to a more competitive environment for telecoms and postal services.
The convergence of IT, telecommunications and content technologies provided the impetus for the merger between NCB and TAS to form the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in December 1999.
In November 2001, IDA was transferred from the former Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to MICA. Singapore's ten-year infocomm masterplan, called Intelligent Nation 2015 or iN2015, was launched in June 2006 to transform the country into an Intelligent Nation and Global City, Powered by "Infocomm". The masterplan recommends the way forward for Singapore, into a future where infocomm will bring a sea of change and become intrinsic in the way people live, learn, work and play.
State of the Infocomm Sector
• Total revenue for the sector grew by 13.8 percent from S$45.4 billion in 2006 to S$51.7 billion in 2007.
• Singapore's infocomm sector currently directly employs more than with 73,000 people while another 57,000 infocomm professionals are employed by end-user organisations. The overall demand for infocomm manpower is forecast to grow 11.8 percent over 2008 and 2009.
• Fully liberalised telecommunications market with high adoption rates: As of February 2009, the household broadband penetration is 104 percent* and mobile penetration, 132 percent.
* the “Household Broadband Penetration” rate includes wireless access plans (provided via 3.5G/HSDPA and WiMAX or its equivalent). It excludes subscriptions to 3G and Wi-Fi hotspots. This figure is computed using the total number of residential broadband subscribers on a per household basis.
The following is a list of Infocomm-related Acts:
Overview of the Postal sector
The postal sector started when Singapore took over its own postal functions and was admitted to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) on 8 January 1966. Competition has been gradually introduced in the postal sector, beginning in 1992, when Singapore Post was granted a Public Postal Licence with a 15-year exclusive right to collect and deliver ordinary letters and postcards within, into and out of Singapore. In 1995, the provision of express letter services was liberalised and opened to competition.
The postal sector was fully liberalised on 1 April 2007 with the end of Singapore Post’s monopoly in the basic mail services market. The liberalisation entailed an amendment to the Postal Services Act, which came into effect on 24 August 2007.
Postal Related Act:
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