There are just too many broadband services out there. ALFRED SIEW sifts through the jumble and lists which ones are best for the home, on the road and for both

When Mr Vincent Mun, 35, shopped for a broadband service last month, he had a headache. Should he sign up for a wireless service that enabled him to go online on the move, or one that provided faster speeds? He chose both.
He kept his existing Pacific Internet ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) link at home, which could download files fast.

He also signed up for MobileOne (M1) Broadband, a wireless service that lets him surf at the office and on the go as well.

'I was a bit confused initially, because there are a lot of services out there,' said the owner of an engineering firm.

After more than a year of intense competition, confusion may be the unwanted side effect: there are now more than a dozen or so broadband plans offered by the handful of telecoms operators here, including SingTel, iCell Network and QMax Communications (for Wireless@Sg).

Some are tailored for the home, others for people on the move. But people who are signing up for the first time have a problem. Flipping through the newspapers on a weekend, they would find it difficult to decide which one to go for as page after page of advertisements leap out, promising faster connections and better coverage.

It does not help that the names of the services often do not clue users in on what is being offered.

Some telcos like SingTel try. For example, its latest high-speed service is called Broadband On Mobile because it uses a mobile network to deliver the broadband service.

But do people know that?

Responding to Digital Life, SingTel spokesman Chia Boon Chong defended the name, saying: 'We would rather use this than sell the technology.'

Greater speed promised

But service providers may soon have to find catchier names and differentiate their services clearly, as even more broadband technologies crop up to offer more choices, say experts. They add that, in the coming years, people are going to surf with more than one connection, and they will need to know what services are out there.

SingTel, for example, is testing a broadband technology called Fibre To The Home for a possible rollout in future. This network replaces the copper phone lines in homes now with fibre optic cables to deliver almost infinite speed boosts for years to come.

M1, meanwhile, has plans to up speeds for its wireless broadband service from 3.6Mbps to 14.4Mbps by the end of this year. This will bring it closer to fixed line services like SingNet Broadband and StarHub MaxOnline.

The challenge is to keep things simple, even as users turn to multiple connections to go online.

Mr Mun, for example, surfs at home and at work with his M1 modem. But when he wants to download large files, like construction drawings, he uses his fixed line broadband service. 'If I am not downloading, I use M1; if I am, I use fixed line, because it's faster,' he said.

Analyst Soh Siow Meng, from consultancy firm Current Analysis, said telcos like SingTel that have multiple offerings should bundle them in one neat package.

'They really need to have something simplified for users,' he added