Technology

Solve your Wi-Fi woes with Singtel's transparent fibre optics

Singtel says it can rid your Wi-Fi dead spots for good with its new transparent fibre optic offering.

Paul Mah

Apr 11, 2024 — 2 min read

Image Credit: Singtel

Singtel says it can rid your Wi-Fi dead spots for good with its new transparent fibre optic offering.

Flustered by spotty Wi-Fi, slow Internet at home? Singtel just launched a solution that will eliminate it once and for all. Really.

Here's how it works, without the jargon.

Evolving Wi-Fi use

The real problem with poor Wi-Fi is a convoluted one that revolves around both technology and our usage patterns.

With skyrocketing digital use over the years, what used to be acceptable coverage or speed is no longer the adequate.

Today we expect Wi-Fi everywhere:

In the bedroom.
At the dining table.
Waiting for lift (That's me).
The bathroom (Not me, but someone I know).

Mesh Wi-Fi tech moved the needle but is pricey and isn't perfect.

The solution to wireless is wired

Ideally, we need wired cabling to different parts of the home. This will allow the use of multiple Wi-Fi access points for optimal coverage, with reliable Internet access fed in via network cables.

When I moved into my current home almost a decade ago, I had contractors pull some Ethernet cables to a few strategic parts.

Ok, it was quite a lot of cables. But I've been able to periodically upgrade my Wi-Fi access points - all the way to 10Gig, with the same cables.

However, the messiness of installation means it hardly gets done once people move in.

But what if you can install cabling with no hacking or drilling? You're now in luck.

Invisible cables

I admit I didn't know anything about "transparent fibre optic" before today. Turns out they made it out of plastic instead of flexible glass.

🔸Plastic means it can turn tighter corners than traditional fibre optic cables.

🔸By glueing it directly to the walls, door frames etc, there's no need for ugly trunking.

🔸Remove the sheathing and it's now practically invisible.

The technology comes from Huawei (They call it Fibre-to-the-Room, or FTTR) and is offered by Singtel under its 10Gig broadband package.

You get: 1x main unit with Wi-Fi, and 1 or more "mesh" Wi-Fi units.

The main unit has an optical connector, which runs to the mesh unit. An optical splitter is used if more mesh units are installed.

Each mesh unit has:

Wi-Fi 6.
1x 2.5Gbps port.
1x 1Gbps port.

With optical multiplexing, every mesh unit has the same bandwidth - though I can't find the max supported nodes in publicly available Huawei materials.

Pricing

Price starts at SG$109 per month for 1x mesh node and 10Gig symmetric broadband.

My 10Gig experience here: https://lnkd.in/gX8sCy3D

Additional price details: