Singapore strengthens digital infra with 10Gbps rollout and quantum-safe network

It is taking its digital lead to the next level, targeting 500,000 homes for 10Gbps broadband by 2028.

Singapore is strengthening its digital foundations by building up its “soft infrastructure” layer — the systems that support secure and interoperable digital transactions alongside the nation’s physical networks.

Speaking at the Asian Telecom Summit 2026 held in Singapore, Loh Woon Sien, senior director for Infrastructure Planning and Market Development at the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), outlined how Singapore’s Digital Utility Stack and National Quantum Safe Network Plus (NQSN+) initiatives are part of a layered approach to future-ready infrastructure.

According to Loh, this soft infrastructure “provides the foundation for key digital transactions” and sits at the top of Singapore’s full-stack approach. At the Digital Utility Stack, she said, the focus is “to drive adoption, trust, interoperability, and global linkages,” supporting seamless operations across the digital economy.

A prime example of this approach is InvoiceNow, Singapore’s nationwide e-invoicing network. Loh said the system “operates on the open standard Peppol framework, allowing for global interoperability and scale.” She added that “by driving adoption of this digital utility, we drive efficiency and reduce costs for businesses across their payment processes.”

The middle layer of Singapore’s digital infrastructure integrates physical and digital assets to improve connectivity, reliability, and interoperability for more autonomous and intelligent systems. For example, Loh highlighted the Autonomous Mobile Robots initiative, which helps enterprises integrate robots with surrounding infrastructure to overcome manpower constraints.

Loh also described the hard infrastructure layer, which includes subsea cables, fibre networks, data centres, and mobile networks. She noted that Singapore currently has over 30 subsea cable landings, up from 10 in 2007, and plans to double subsea cable capacity in the next decade to meet future demand.

On the domestic connectivity front, she said that 1 in 5 households are already on Singapore’s 10G broadband network, and the country is targeting 500,000 homes by 2028 for speeds up to 10 gigabits per second. The city-state was also amongst the first to deploy nationwide 5G standalone networks, now covering 95% of outdoor areas.

Emerging technologies are also reshaping the landscape. Quantum, in particular, is an area where Singapore is “investing ahead to prepare for the emerging risks” to cryptography. The NQSN+ initiative, launched in 2023, aims to help the city-state achieve a quantum-safe environment within the next decade, providing businesses with access to Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) solutions.

Loh noted that developments in AI, cloud, and quantum are reshaping telecom capabilities, “requiring networks not just to be faster, but also smarter.” She also stressed the importance of sustainability, highlighting the Singapore Green Data Centre Roadmap and Tropical Data Centre Standards, which aim to improve energy efficiency and enable data centres to operate at higher temperatures using green energy sources.

These layers and initiatives ensure that Singapore’s digital infrastructure is robust, interoperable, and capable of supporting businesses and society. As Loh put it, this holistic approach “ensures that Singapore’s digital infrastructure is future-ready, really, for businesses and society,” providing a scalable and secure platform for innovation, adoption, and global connectivity.