All businesses to get access to 5G innovation with four 5G open testbeds

SINGAPORE – 19 OCT 2021

All businesses will have access to open testbeds to develop, adopt, and commercialise 5G solutions as Singapore forges ahead in 5G innovation. The four testbeds located at the Maritime Drone Estate, Singapore Science Park, PIXEL, and Sentosa will enable businesses of different sizes, industries, and technology readiness levels to experiment with and develop 5G solutions in areas such as drone deliveries, maritime operations, smart cities solutions, and content production.

Said Mr Lew Chuen Hong, Chief Executive, IMDA: “5G is a gamechanger for enterprises, and we are pulling out all the stops to help businesses benefit from 5G. We have seen early success from the 5G pilots, and it is timely to now shift gears to accelerate adoption and commercialisation. I encourage businesses to experiment and innovate with the new open 5G testbeds.”

IMDA partnered the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and CapitaLand Investment (CLI) to make 5G available to all businesses at Maritime Drone Estate and Singapore Science Park; 5G was previously only available to selected projects.

Together with the 5G Living Lab @ Pixel set up in 2020, and the new Sentosa 5G testbed in Singapore announced today, businesses now have a choice of various 5G open testbeds depending on their specific use case focus area and resources required. For example, the 5G open testbed at MDE focuses on drone and maritime applications, CLI on smart estates applications, and Pixel on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality and content production.

Industry pilots progress to adoption and commercialisation

IMDA’s efforts to drive the adoption and commercialisation of 5G solutions in Singapore, through the testbeds and other efforts, have seen significant success, with 5G innovations developed rolled out at scale, enjoying strong commercial interest, and deployed overseas:

• 5G maritime applications deployed at scale: Following a successful pilot by IMDA and PSA at the Pasir Panjang Terminal to use 5G to support Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) and Automated Cranes, PSA will now partner with a mobile operator to deploy a private 5G network to support 5G-enabled AGVs and Automated Cranes at both the Pasir Panjang Terminal and Tuas Port. PSA will also look at using 5G in its future initiatives such as PSA Smart Grid and autonomous delivery and cargo handling operations.
• TeamOne 5G modem enjoys commercial interest: As part of an ongoing Airbus 5G trial supported by IMDA, Local technology start-up TeamOne collaborated with mobile operator M1 and Airbus to successfully develop a compact and light-weight aeronautical 5G Standalone (SA) modem. TeamOne’s 5G modem has seen keen interest from robots and drone players interested in using its modem for applications such as robot-as-a-service and drone communications.
• IBM, M1, IMDA and Samsung Industry 4.0 collaboration goes global: In May 2020, IBM, IMDA, M1, and Samsung announced a collaboration to develop Singapore’s first 5G industry 4.0 trial¹. Singapore’s first 5G Industry 4.0 Studio was launched² in 2021, and IBM will be deploying an 5G-Enabled Augmented Reality (AR) solution that has been integrated with AI Visual Recognition to their global manufacturing sites, starting with IBM’s Poughkeepsie (New York) plant in 2022.

Companies keen to innovate and develop 5G commercial solutions at these testbeds can tap on IMDA’s $30M 5G Innovation Programme³ which was launched in January 2021. This fund supports enterprise efforts in Singapore to adopt 5G solutions to address sector challenges or enterprise needs. The fund will also support solution providers and technology developers commercialising 5G solutions.

Resources:

• Annex A: Details of 5G open testbeds and relevant quotes. (226.25KB)
• Annex B: Details of companies commercialising solutions or looking to testbed solutions at the 5G Open Testbeds. (209.37KB)