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Digital Inclusion, Local Government

What web speed means for Asia's public sector

By Robin Hicks | 6 October 2010

Of the top 100 cities with the world’s fastest internet speeds, 73 are in Asia, a report from Akamai has revealed. What are the implications of high-speed connectivity for government services?

Korea and Japan racing ahead

Of the top 100 cities by average internet connection speed measured by Akamai, which serves around 20 per cent of the world’s web traffic, 61 cities are Japanese and 12 are Korean. Hong Kong also makes the list.

By contrast, only 12 US cities and 12 European cities feature in the table, published in Akamai’s Q1 2010 State of the Internet report.

The City of Masan in South Gyeongsang Province, Korea, has the highest average internet speed in the world – 16 Mbps – and eight of the top ten cities are also Korean.

However, even in Korea, the average speed is a relatively slow 12 Mbps. Speeds of up to 100 Mbps are now widely available, but the price is said to be out of reach for the majority of Koreans.

Following Korea, Hong Kong and Japan – the top three - the next speediest internet cities are Taiwan, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, India and China.

There is a big divide between ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ countries. The average connection speed in Korea is 17 times faster than in China.

In terms of growth, Thailand, Malaysia, and Korea have increased internet speeds at the fastest rate over the past year. In the Philippines, Australia and Singapore, internet speeds have actually slowed. However, with broadband projects in the pipeline in all three countries, this is soon expected to change.

What speed means to the public sector

Faster internet speeds will open the door to innovation and accessibility in government, education and healthcare, Philip Chua, Country Manager for Akamai in Singapore and Malaysia, told FutureGov.

“Faster connection speeds could mean big changes for aftercare,” said Chua. “Take Singapore. Now, you go to the hospital for a follow-up, queue for 45 minutes and spend 10 minutes with the consultant. But 1Gbps bandwidth could mean video calls between doctors and patients, removing the need for a trip to the hospital.”

This is not possible in Singapore now, but the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, which is expected to be fully deployed by 2012, will bring speeds of 1 Gbps and above to homes, workplaces, schools and outdoor spaces.

As well as faster government e-services, telemedicine, interactive e-learning, and multi-user real-time simulation games for use in training will also become a possibility, Chua added.

Singapore also has plans to use its new broadband network as the communications backbone for the Energy Market Authority’s pilot Intelligent Energy System, an early step towards the creation of a smart grid.

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