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M1 and MPA collaborate to enhance 4G coverage in Singapore's waters

By Koh Wanzi - on 23 Mar 2015, 10:30am

M1 and MPA collaborate to enhance 4G coverage in Singapore’s waters

M1's enhanced 4G coverage extends even to the limits of Singapore's eastern maritime border. 

M1 and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together to bring improved 4G mobile coverage to Singapore’s port waters. The two organizations will also promote the adoption of 4G mobile broadband for vessels operating in offshore waters.

The strength of 4G signals can get patchy and drop out entirely as vessels venture further from the shore, which could potentially hamper the crew’s work and general satisfaction. M1 and MPA aim to rectify this and enhance work productivity and crew welfare with better and more reliable mobile broadband coverage at sea. 

"Over the last 12 months, we invested a further $10 million and worked with MPA to identify and resolve any coverage gaps and enhance mobile coverage along Singapore’s coastal waters and offshore islands," said Willis Sim, Director of Product Development and Corporate Solutions at M1. The telco has installed additional base stations on some offshore sites, among them St. John’s Island and Raffles Lighthouse, in order to extend coverage at sea and on Singapore’s Southern Islands.

The new coverage rollout is a product of comprehensive trials involving shipping companies and crew on M1’s enhanced 4G network. In a demonstration last Friday, M1 showed that its devices were still able to receive a 4G mobile broadband signal even at the limits of Singapore's eastern maritime border. The company currently offers 99% 4G coverage up to 15km from the mainland, and eventually hopes to deliver the same 4G mobile broadband speeds at sea as those enjoyed by customers on the mainland.

M1 demonstrates its 4G speeds at sea on speedtest.net by Ookla.

Also announced were M1’s corporate data-pooling plans which offer corporate customers the flexibility of a shared mobile data bundle of up to 100GB, which can be shared among authorized employees through 4G dongles or handsets. The data-sharing plans uniquely target the needs of the maritime community as crews and any additional personnel will be able to seamlessly enjoy the shared data bundle during the specific time periods when their ships are anchored in Singapore’s waters.

Back in September 2012, M1 was the first telco to launch a 4G LTE service in South East Asia and late last year in Decmeber 2014, it was the first in Singapore to offer nationwide 300Mbps 4G network. Today's announcement futher builds on M1's perserverance to provide the best possible data service coverage in Singapore, its southern islands and over its surrounding waters.

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