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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Internet speed: IDA must act

It is disappointing to read the three major internet service providers' response today (Dec 28) to the government's proposal to have them disclose their average surfing speeds when they go about marketing their broadband.

Their answer is a flat "No". Reason? It is impossible to define what is an average speed because many factors affect internet speed.

This seems odd to me because when I googled to find out the internet speed of other countries, I came across a study that ranks the "average internet speed" of the various countries and Singapore was nowhere in that ranking.

If the three telcos --- Starhub, Singtel and M1 --- refuse to agree to the Infocomm Development Authority's proposal to state their average speeds, then logically they should not be allowed to market their plans based on their "rarely achievable maximum speeds".

It is a case of having their cake and eating it. The IDA must act.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cannot agree more with you. If Starhub, Singtel and M1 can charge us different prices based on different speeds, then they better accede to IDA's request. If not, they should charge at the lowest flat rate.

Anne said...

I did not know what S-L-O-W meant until I went to a friend's home to help her with her new laptop. It took hours (literally) to download one application file. Location: near Holland Village.

According to her, they have the same situation at their offices - in Shenton Way.

Seems to me that consumers are exploited all the time in Singapore!