ViewQwest Launches First 2 Gbps Home Fiber Plan in Singapore
Want to have the fastest home internet connection in Singapore? Check out ViewQwest – they are the first to offer a 2 Gbps plan, the fastest possible home broadband plan. You can sign up for this plan at the IT Show this Thursday.
Is 2 Gbps plan practical?
Most of our wireless devices maximum access speed is around 300-600 Kbps. Even if you do not use wireless, an individual wired connection typically support up to 1 Gbps only. Well, Viewqwest does have a comprehensive overview on how you can achieve the incredible power of 2Gbps bandwidth on a single computer. See the infographic below. This requires the use of a special MicroTik router coupled with special dual gigabit network interface cards on your computer. Honestly, I think the tech-savvy geeks will stay away from this plan (the sweet spot is 1 Gbps now). This is only suitable for those who want to brag about it, but really, just not practical.
For those interested to sign up, here are the details of their promotion.
ViewQwest 2015 IT Show Promotion
2GBPS Starting at $89.95 per month
24 months contract
Download Speed 2Gbps
Upload Speed 1Gbps
Assured Bandwidth for ALL Traffic 99% of the time
FREE ViewQwest TV
FREE Freedom VPN (3 months) – optional @ $10.70/mth thereafter
FREE Modem Rental
FREE Amazon Fire HD 7, 8GB (Tablet)
Or
FREE ASUS RT-AC56S (Router)
Or
Top-Up $100 for both of the above
Or
Top-up $599 for XBOX One Kinect Bundle
Optional OneVoice™ Residential ($3.95 MRC) (digital phone line)
There’s no way you can utilise the 2 Gbps bandwidth with their provided router!
It is quite nonsensical that ViewQwest is only bundling the ASUS RT-AC56S router with this 2 Gbps plan. The AC56S is a 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1200 Gigabit Router, the 5 GHz band works at up to 867Mbps, while the 2.4 GHz frequency tops 300 Mbps, serving an combined bandwidth of 1167 Mbps. There’s no way you can utilise the 2 Gbps bandwidth with their provided router. They should have just thrown in the ASUS RT-87U AC-2400 instead, or the upcoming AC-3200 router. At least, the provided equipment would have the potential capability to touch the 2 Gbps limit.
This 2Gbps plan is more applicable for huge households with many multiple users. Even then, 2Gbps is overkill, and you might be better off served with separate 1Gbps plan for QoS and latency improvements. Looks like this is the start of a bandwidth race and we will see if the Singtel / Starhub / M1 fibre teams follow suit. I would have been more interested if the competition was on the lower end of the bandwidth spectrum instead.