10 October 2022

M1 has announced plans for an ambitious multi-year project to deliver ubiquitous 5G standalone (SA) offshore coverage along the southern coast of Singapore, including the waters surrounding the southern islands.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will work in collaboration with, and co-fund, the project.

“The launch of M1’s 5G standalone network provides low-latency, responsive, secured and high-throughput mobile connectivity to ensure more precise and reliable communications between the ships and the port,” said Manjot Singh Mann, CEO of M1. “5G has the capability to resolve long-standing pain points and it will become the natural technology of choice for the maritime industry. As the first country to extend 5G standalone coverage to sea for maritime operations, M1 is excited to partner MPA and IMDA to co-develop 5G solutions that will not only transform the industry but benefit the whole of Singapore’s maritime economy.”

The 5G SA network is expected to enable new maritime 5G use cases under the IMDA Innovation and Ecosystem Testbed Programme and the MPA Innovation Lab, making this project the world’s first public and biggest maritime testbed at sea. Potential new use cases being targeted include telemedicine for crew welfare at sea, delivery drones, maritime surveillance, autonomous vessels, and remotely controlled task-based robots use for dangerous and labour-intensive tasks such as ship inspection and fire-fighting robots.