Research findings showed that Asia accounted for more than 53% of the broadband lines added in the world in the first quarter of 2010. An example is Singapore which is rolling out its its Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, (Next Gen NBN).

Global broadband connections currently top 484 million lines, resulting in a 3.12% growth in the quarter, and 12.41% in the past year to the end of Q1 of this year.

The first quarter growth rate increase shows a tremendous growth for worldwide broadband. At the same time the number of IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) subscribers grew to 36.3 million. According to the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), as of Apr 2010,  Singapore’s total broadband subscriptions stood at 6.39 million, up from 6.22 million in March 2010.

DSL (digital subscriber line) remains as the most popular access technology for broadband. Fibre continues to experience a rapid growth. Supported by some major national government initiatives, broadband adoption is expected to accelerate even more in the next few years.

The surge in broadband users in Asia has resulted in the region to increase its market share to 32.4 per cent - almost one-third of the global market.

PayPal is looking at growing its pie in Asia-Pacific for mobile commerce. According to Informa Research, the region’s mobile commerce market is expected to explode from 24 billion dollars in 2009 to 139 billion dollars in 2012.

PayPal announced that it had signed an agreement with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to drive mobile commerce in the country. This will make it easier for businesses and consumers to conduct transactions and make payments over mobile phones.

The company plans to double its employees in the region to more than 2,000 by the end of the year with Singapore serving as its international base.

Markets such as Australia, Singapore and Malaysia are seeing a surge in mobile commerce, especially with the proliferation in smart phone usage. In Singapore, eight out of every 10 mobile phones sold is a smartphone.

Read more

The Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) is expected to be deployed nationwide in Singapore by 2012 to offer competitively priced broadband speeds from 100Mbps,  scalable up to one Gbps (gigabit per second) and beyond.  It will be rolled out in workplaces, homes and schools, and even to outdoor locations.

Beyond the boost in speeds, a competitive retail broadband services market will open doors to new advancements such as interactive Internet Protocol TV, telemedicine, interactive e-learning, multi-user real-time simulation games etc.

The government would be one key user in this space to deliver the best government services to employees and citizens.

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) is also supporting the establishment of Next Generation Innovation Centres (NGIC) to facilitate collaboration by the various infocomm players  to create innovative solutions.  Service and technology providers can use Singapore as a test bed for new products, services and business models to bring them into international markets.

Major enterprises like Citibank, BNP Paribas International Private Bank, Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, UOB and Daimler are also making Singapore their choice destination to locate their shared IT services centres.

Apart from large multinational corporations, over the past 2 years, some 40 start-ups from countries such as the US, Europe and Asia have also anchored their Asia headquarters and engineering centres here, bringing in more than $50 million worth of investments and contributing more than 260 high-value, innovation-driven engineering jobs in Singapore.

Asia Pacific’s security software market outside Japan in 2010 is expected to grow year-on-year by 21%, in comparison only 3% in 2009, according to research house IDC.

One of the key reasons is the resume of previously frozen or pending projects, of which security is a major component in them. The demand for security solutions remains strong, given the volume of new enterprise and data centre projects, together with an increase in awareness for data protection, according to IDC.

The Secure Content and Threat Management market is largely shared by the key providers such as Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, Kaspersky and Sophos, and gateway protection companies such as CheckPoint and Websense.

Increasingly, companies are adopting hardware and SaaS (software as a service) based security solutions to protect their online activities, said IDC.  The need for data protection and meeting security requirements is critical for larger enterprises in the region.

The most commmonly implemented areas include single sign-on and advanced authentication and certification technologies.

The number of online media on-the-move consumers are increasing in Southeast Asia, according to the second annual Net Index Study by Yahoo where Singapore can benefit from this trend.

Being the business epicentre of Southeast Asia, with good connectivity and maturity, Singapore continues to attract entrepreneurs and multinationals.  Despite its small population, Singapore has influenced many key decisions that impact the region when it comes to online advertising and marketing, according to Ken Mandel, Regional vice-president of advertising sales and marketplace for Yahoo!.

Online gaming, user-generated content and social media are experiencing a rapid growth across Southeast Asia, which comprises more than 110 million Internet users.