Technology

Why you should switch to 10Gbps broadband today

Two reasons to switch and two reasons not to.

Paul Mah

Paul Mah

— 2 min read
Why you should switch to 10Gbps broadband today
Photo Caption: Unsplash/shawnanggg

Need more Internet speed? Here are 2 reasons to sign up for 10Gbps broadband - and 2 reasons not to.

I still remember that breathtaking moment when I switched from a dial-up modem to a newfangled ADSL Internet plan.

It was a different world then.

  • No Wi-Fi.
  • PC with 16MB RAM.
  • 10Mbps (0.01Gbps) LAN.

My jump to 512Kbps "broadband" (0.000512Gbps) felt like magic.

Today, symmetric 10Gbps broadband is available in Singapore for less than SG$70 per month. Should you sign up?

2 reasons to skip 10Gbps

  1. Your home network is slow

Going for 10Gbps broadband is useless if your home network is too slow.

To be clear, no Wi-Fi device can saturate a 10Gbps connection yet. But how much you can utilise depends on factors such as:

  • Speed of Wi-Fi access points, client devices.
  • How access points are wired up.
  • The presence of older devices.

It's also why telcos are bundling speedy Wi-Fi routers to go with new 10Gbps plans - for a slight price premium, of course.

  1. It takes effort to benefit fully from 10Gbps

To make full use of 10Gbps, you will need:

  • 10Gbps Ethernet port on your PC or Mac.
  • At least Cat 5e or better cabling.
  • 10Gbps networking gear.
  • Fast computer.

For some, it is just more work than it's worth.

2 reasons to sign up for 10Gbps

  1. That 10Gbps is shared

Home broadband in Singapore is delivered by XGS-PON, which sees one 10Gig optical port at the telco shared by as many as two dozen neighbours.

If this sounds bad, just imagine your existing "1Gbps" broadband shared by a similar number of neighbours. At least 10Gbps gives you a much fatter pipe to start with!

  1. More is better

Finally, why wouldn't you want more Internet bandwidth? While some will argue that even the fastest Internet won't matter if the "overseas connection" is slow, it is a dated argument.

As a key data centre hub, many websites and content providers have established a presence in Singapore. Most are cached on local CDNs; some have even built data centres.

Why, Meta has a massive 150MW facility at Tanjong Kling built for US$1 billion - making up a hefty 10% of the data centre capacity here.

What's your current home broadband and networking setup? Do you use mesh Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet? Pray share.

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