Kenny Lim, Digital Media

http://www.brandrepublic.asia/DigitalMedia/newsarticle/2009_02/Singapore...

SINGAPORE - Singapore has become the most wired country in the world as broadband penetration hit 99.9 per cent in the city-state at the end of December 2008.

The figure, supplied by the country’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), means Singapore now ranks ahead of some of the world’s most connected countries including South Korea (92 per cent), Hong Kong (83.8 per cent) and Taiwan (76.8 per cent).

The figure also beats the Government's 10-year Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) masterplan to achieve 90 per cent penetration rate by 2015, which was set in 2006 to transform the country and economy by promoting the adoption of infocomm.

The near 100 per cent penetration rate does not mean all households in Singapore have broadband access as subscribers hooked on to portable modems are included as well. The count, however, does exclude subscriptions to 3G mobile data plans and Wi-Fi hotspots that are not home-based.

The high growth of broadband penetration in the Lion City is attributed to lower costs for higher surfing speeds - brought on by competitive pricing and broadband packages by telcos such as SingTel, StarHub and M1 here.

In Asia-Pacific, Singapore also boasts the highest reach in social networking.

According to comScore, Singapore led the region in terms of penetration, with more than 74 per cent of its online population having visited a social networking site in December 2008.

Social networking visitors in Singapore also posted the most visits per visitor to the category with an average of 19 during the month.