ITCOW [L]

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while since the launch here in Singapore
but due to work commitments and personal commitments it may be a little,
outdated, well, just a little but here goes, I hope you enjoy it as much as I
enjoy writing.

M1’s new service.

Wireless anywhere in Singapore, really! A dream come true, anywhere! Some of
us will remember just not too long ago, they launched their test to enter the
Singapore islandwide wireless tests to provide the service but it pulled out
after a while. The wireless islandwide coverage will be coming, soon many hope
since McDonald’s has stopped offering free wireless service officially but many
branches I went to still offers it which is excellent news and a sure crowd
puller.

Covering how this M1 service work is really out of scope for this short
article, you can however, surf on <here>

So what can we do with this? Since it allows sharing of up to 5 users
according to M1’s ads but we all know, it’s basically a router and thus having
more connections from users will of course be absoutely possible. The problem
here is of course the speed that this service is offered at. Upload is at,
"384Kbits/sec download speed – uploads are limited to 64Kbits/sec", and with
that 3G card, you will be "transferred" to GPRS which is at 56Kbits/sec should
3G fails. I would love to test this on the MRT connecting up at Tampines and
taking the train all the way to Boon Lay station and see just how good this M1
service may be!

This M1 service will have a lot of useful applications. We can at last move
all those boring meetings into the open! Management issues aside but there’s the
possibilities, meetings at informal places or even at corporate retreat at
Sentosa, anywhere, on the beaches, at Chalets or huts (not sure if these are
still around). Google does provide charter buses with Internet wirless access
for employees who commute from San Francisco to Googleplex, an hour long trip
making commuters aka employees more productive during their trip instead of
listening to their iPods.

Technology is changing the social behavior in all of us, I missed the recent
National Day rally, no problems,
download it, popped it
into my Dopod 838 and I’m listening to it on my way to office, I’ve always think
that we humans waste a lot of time sleeping and commuting, we can’t go a lot
about sleeping, we need to, we just need to. Commuting, we can make better use
of our time, we need to get from point A to point B every single day, be it to
work or to play and I can’t wait for Star Trek-like "Scotty beam me up"
technologies to be available but I may not be around to actually see it come
true so, it’s wise to do something useful while commuting. Reading is something
but it limits us to what we bring onboard, with Internet access, the sky’s the
limit!

Yes, we might be overworking and still working while commuting? People just
need to at times. There’s no choice about it. If it’s not us, it’s someone else,
besides, we can always use it for entertainment. Surfing
Mr Brown while commuting or finishing up
your homework while travelling to school, uploading your latest capture shots on
your camera phone or simply, the things so many do nowadays, they Blog. Internet
access on the MRT is sensible as it’s more stable to hold down say a laptop and
actually be able to work on it steadily instead of like on buses where the
rocking and swerving makes it almost impossible to get work done but for
information gathering, like searching for a map on
Streetdirectoy.com, a place you
need to get to after alighting. We overworking, I would support Internet access
on MRT and buses more than with Blackberry, that is a more "invasive
technology", it’s good, don’t get me wrong and it works for many busy
executives/ CEO/ CIO/ CFO and even simply just employees but the thought of
having e-mails pushed to me and forcing me to read them just well, I already
hate SMSes and push mails?!

So, what lies ahead here in Singapore? We’ll have super fast and get this,
gigabit (1000mbps) connection to homes, islandwide wireless Internet
connectivities and thus, maybe cheaper Internet access at last for us here in
Singapore? I run two Internet subscriptions at home and it isn’t cheap enough
these days. So here’s the drawback, M1 is charging <PRICE> for this service, an
typical Internet account at home, which you cannot like M1’s service be brought
around with you cost between <PRICE OF OTHER ISP>, I can’t do with both my ISP
at home so terminiating either one at home is out of the question, adding this
to my monthly bills just for Internet access? Will consider if it’s cheap
enough.

Reference:

Get your own Hot-Spot

M1’s 3G Service
Vodafone Mobile
Connect 3G Card
The Linksys router
for M1’s service