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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees 1 Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Acting Minister for Social and Family Development (a) what is the rationale for requiring anchor operators for childcare centres to be not-for-profit organisations and to have no religious or ethnic affiliation; and (b) whether the Ministry will use a different set of criteria when it re-opens applications for new anchor operators.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees 2 Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Acting Minister for Social and Family Development how the Ministry intends to prevent childcare centre operators from making excessive fee increases when higher subsidies for childcare and infant care are implemented.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees 3 Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Acting Minister for Social and Family Development (a) how many new childcare centres the Ministry plans for current and new anchor operators to open over the next five years; and (b) what will be the distribution of new childcare centres between the existing two anchor operators and the future new anchor operators.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, if I may have your permission to take Question Nos 1 to 3 together?
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Yes, please.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, the eligibility criteria for the anchor operator scheme were set to ensure that the operators' programmes are accessible to children of all backgrounds, and that the Government's funding goes towards serving the public good rather than private profit. Anchor operators are required to demonstrate financial stability and commit to meeting the quality and affordability targets set by the Ministry. The scheme is currently being reviewed and the Implementation Committee for Enhancing Pre-School Education co-chaired by MOE and MSF will announce more details by the second quarter of this year.
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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mr Yee asked how we ensure that childcare centres do not raise fees excessively in response to the recent enhancements to subsidies. First, we have designed the enhancements to give more assistance to families who require more help. Lower income families will receive more subsidy, as well as larger families with a lower per capita income. As the enhancements are not universal, it is less likely that operators can raise fees across the board. Second, we will continue to facilitate the development of more centres in areas where there is demand, and grow the number of good quality, affordable places through the anchor operator scheme to help keep overall fees in check.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees On the number and distribution of new centres by anchor operators, it would be premature for us to update on this as the new operators have yet to be chosen and to make their submissions for the new sites. We are committed to building as many centres as necessary to meet demand for good quality, affordable childcare services.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees I thank the Acting Minister for the answers. I have three supplementary questions – one for each of the Parliamentary Questions I filed. The first is that I want to understand the policy ideas versus other Government policies. For example, MOE is quite generous in supporting schools that have religious affiliations. They are the Government-aided schools and they get very generous support. Also, in the transport industry, public transport is run by private companies with very generous Government support. There appears to be some inconsistency with the Government policies here and I would like a clarification from the Acting Minister.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees The second clarification is whether centres do need to get MSF permission if they wish to raise fees. And if they still raise fees after all the monitoring by MSF and after all these generous grants have been given out, what is MSF's position on this? Does MSF impose certain curbs on excessive fee increases?
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees The third clarification is that I am rather concerned, looking at past data, because of the very few numbers of void deck centres that are available for private operators to bid for. It has resulted in centres being bidded up to $45,000 per month rental. Anybody who operates in the industry knows that this is definitely not a viable model. But if going forward, there are too few centres allocated for the other operators and all centres have gone to the Anchor Operators, then we will have another bidding war and we will see the rents of centres going up.
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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, I thank Mr Yee for his three supplementary questions. On the first, different sectors have different characteristics. It is different for the transport sector and different for the pre-school sector. What we are most concerned with in the pre-school sector is to ensure that we have adequate and affordable services for the mass market. There will always be parents who will require niche services, and I think they are at liberty to pursue those services. But when it comes to Government funding, we would like to use Government funding, where we can, to support the mass market options so that most of our parents would have the quality and affordable options available to them. For all the Anchor Operators that take on Government subsidies, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that they make access available to children from all backgrounds, independent of religious affiliations.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees The other thinking is this. When we spend what is public money, then we should ensure that the public money goes on to benefit the two groups of people. One, the families and children involved. The other is the teachers providing the services that are so important in this sector. We would be very careful to design a scheme such that the public money does not go into private profit. That has been our abiding principle.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees On the second question about how and when the childcare operators can raise fees, we have guidelines in place to ensure that if the childcare operators raise fees, they are to give adequate notice to the parents such that the parents can make the necessary adjustments if need be.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees For the Anchor Operators, we are more stringent. We ensure that they do not raise fees beyond the industry median. So, if we compare the fees of the Anchor Operators with the rest of the industry, generally, they would be below the industry median. For childcare, it would be $750 a month for the industry median; about $615 for the Anchor Operators in the HDB estates.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees On the last point about the availability of spaces for various operators – be they Anchor Operators or non-Anchor Operators – my Ministry is working closely with MND and other agencies to ensure that we have as many available and suitable sites as possible for the operators. We know that, whether Anchor Operators or non-Anchor Operators, rental cost is an issue. To the extent that we can, we will want to provide affordable options to the operators of such childcare facilities. And hopefully, the operators, whether Anchor Operators or non-Anchor Operators, will not raise fees unnecessarily and use the rental as an excuse to do so.
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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, I would like to seek Acting Minister's views on whether he would agree that there is a risk for childcare or pre-school education to go the for-profit route, mainly because we know that for-profit organisations are primarily driven by the bottom line. The public has voiced their preference for state-run or hybrid model childcare centres, so that this sector is not purely for-profit.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees My second clarification is to ask if Acting Minister has heard that there are private operators – some from overseas – who are buying up smaller players here in the pre-school and childcare sector, possibly to monopolise the market to have a bigger footprint, and even to bring the merged organisations to Initial Public Offering (IPO). I am still very concerned that Acting Minister has decided to take the for-profit route for this particular sector.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, let me thank Ms Denise Phua for her two supplementary questions. Indeed, we share her concerns that people involved in the pre-school or the early childhood development sector should not try to do it primarily for profit and definitely not for the mass market sector. There are a few unique characteristics of this sector. One being that at such an early age, parents are justifiably concerned about their children's development. When you do not have a standardised test to check how much value-add a particular centre provides for the child, there is a danger that people might take price as a proxy for quality. There might also be a danger where people start to chase what they perceive to be quality programmes, which may or may not value add to a child's development.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees In the entire sector, we would not be able to rule out that there will be some people who might be in this work because of profit. What we have to ensure is that where public money is concerned, that if we do give any subsidies, they go towards helping those families that require help most, and not to go into the pockets of people who are pursuing this for private profit.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees We are also equally concerned about this potential of small players being bought up by a conglomerate that is essentially for-profit. This is a problem because it reduces the diversity of the players in the market. The greater concern is that if there is such a situation, then it might actually narrow the mass market options that we want to make available to the public. We are watching this very closely and we will certainly take this into account in the review of our Anchor Operator scheme. Part of the reason for us to have sufficient Anchor Operators is to provide the mass market options for the general public. There might be some for-profit operators that will provide niche solutions at one end of the market for those parents who desire such services. But, indeed, we are
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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees most concerned if this is to happen. When we announce the results of the review, we will be taking into account this particular aspect.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Thank you, Mdm Speaker, I have a couple of supplementary questions for the Acting Minister. I know it is still early days, but I would just like to check if the Ministry has received any feedback on fee increases at childcare and infant care centres operated by the Anchor Operators, as well as the commercial operators, following the announcement of the Marriage and Parenthood Package.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees The second question is: given the high demand for such centres, the worsening crunch in manpower in this sector, rising rentals and the quest for us to get better teachers, what can the Ministry do to mitigate the probable fee hikes, which may negate the effects of higher subsidies?
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, let me thank Mr David Ong for the two supplementary questions. On the first issue, it is still early days, because we have just announced the enhancement to the childcare subsidies, but we will certainly be watching closely to see if there are any operators who might be opportunistic in this and hope to raise fees. What we have done is this: we have tiered the level of subsidies to different income groups. There will be a smaller likelihood – not zero, but smaller likelihood – that they can increase fees across the board. That is one.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees On the second issue, indeed, the longer term solution to mitigate some of these cost pressures is for us to expand the number of options available in the number of sites, but, more importantly, in the number of teachers. The other cost driver for the childcare and early childhood development industry is the quality of the teachers. We are going to spend more money and more effort to develop the teachers, to groom them, to train them, so that the pool of available resources in the entire sector will be bigger than what it is now. That will be an important way for us to mitigate the cost pressures in terms of salaries for this sector. On the other hand, we would also like to gradually upgrade the qualifications of our teachers and, with that, the kind of salary remuneration that they can command.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees There is a multi-pronged approach for us to gradually expand this sector for early childhood development. We do have a bit of an opportunity at this point in time because the kindergarten cohort sizes are shrinking. There is potential for us to encourage some of the current kindergarten operators to
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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees expand their services to the childcare sector.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, I have two follow-up questions. The first is regarding the use of the subsidies to benefit the mass market. I definitely agree with the Acting Minister that the subsidies should benefit the mass market, but I have difficulty reconciling this to why religious and race-based groups cannot be supported because many of them have operated for a very long time. They have benefited the people with their programmes and, usually, at very low fees as well. MOE has been very comfortable dealing with them as long as they do not overly promote religious views. And even for private operators, if he can set certain criteria such that they be monitored to see how much they are charging, to compete with what the Anchor Operators are charging, then I do not see the fear of them over-profiting because they will profit as much as what the Anchors are profiting.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees The second supplementary question is: the Minister said that for the Anchor Operators, the Ministry monitors their fees so that they cannot go above the industry median. We know that the industry median comprises of the private operators and the non-profit operators, and the private operators get very little support. They pay very high rents, so, obviously their fees will be very high. Would the Minister agree that it is better to compare their fees against the median of the non-profit operators rather than across the industry?
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, let me clarify Mr Yee Jenn Jong's first question. Firstly, for public funds that are used to support any programmes in general, we ask that they be made accessible to people from all religious backgrounds. So, we have programmes run by various VWOs – they are religion-based organisations – but the programmes must be made accessible to people from different religious backgrounds. And we also ask that they do not proselytise or do not use that to promote any religious belief in any particular sector. I think that is just to be fair to everybody, because these are, indeed, public funds that we are talking about.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees On the second issue about the private sector operators, our philosophy is that, as much as we can, we would like to use the public funds for public good and to minimise the potential possibility of profits going into private pockets. I think that people can generally agree with us.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees On the third issue about benchmarking, it is not only just the industry benchmark that we have. Before they do any price increase, for the Anchor Operators, we have stringent criteria to ask them to justify the necessity to
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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees increase and what are the cost drivers. We actually drill down to the details. And, indeed, for other comparable non-profit operators, we also take them to account in our benchmarking. So, it is not just the industry median. But, of course, the industry median is one of the criteria that we take into account.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Thank you, Mdm Speaker. I would like to ask the Acting Minister what plans does MSF have in addressing the severe shortage of childcare centres in new estates, such as in Sengkang? One of the reasons I am asking is because I have received numerous emails from residents requesting assistance, and partly also because of the structure of some of the new BTO flats there that makes conversion of void decks to childcare centres extremely challenging. Will the Ministry consider putting up modular structures to house childcare centres to ease the shortfall, at least in the interim?
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees Mdm Speaker, I thank Dr Lam for the questions. Indeed, we are aware of the situation in some of the newer estates like Sengkang. We are open to exploring new ideas and we are also aware that because of the way the new HDB flats are constructed, they do have limited void deck space available for some of these social facilities. We are working with the grassroots advisors in the respective areas to see where we can find new sites. This may include incorporating some of these features into newly developed structures, like for example, multi-storey car parks and other open spaces. We are open to the idea of having modular structures if it is acceptable to the operators and also the parents who are sending their children there. We know that there are some open fields and open areas in Sengkang that can be studied. We are open to such areas and will be happy to work with the Member and the operators to bring those about.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees The other thing that we can do, and we are doing, is to make sure that there is a better matching of the demand and the supply. Sometimes, the centres are there but they do not provide the classes at the appropriate level for the students of that particular area. We have to encourage the operators to open up classes that accommodate those students.
New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees The last thing that we are doing is to also provide better matching because people generally send their children to three localities: near their homes, near their workplace or near their grandparents' places. So, there is quite a bit of flux in the demand but we are trying to do a better matching of the people's demand with where they want to site their children. We are encouraging various employers to try and take up the scheme to set up childcare centres within their workplace. This will provide more options to the parents who need such
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New Childcare Centres and Childcare Fees services.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market 4 Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Communications and Information in view of the Media Development Authority's cross-carriage measure (a) what are its key performance indicators; (b) whether it will result in lower content subscription costs; and (c) what is the Ministry's assessment on (i) the effectiveness of the measure in bringing about better choice and diversity of content; and (ii) Singapore's competitiveness as a broadcast and content market.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Mdm Speaker, I would like to thank Mr Zaqy Mohamad for his question on MDA's cross-carriage measure.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market The measure was introduced in August 2011 to address the high degree of content fragmentation in the Singapore pay TV market. If it has been successful, we would expect pay TV content to be less fragmented. This is exactly what has been observed.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market More common channels are now available to consumers. There were only seven channels, mainly foreign public service channels, available on both StarHub Cable Vision (SCV) and SingNet mio TV (mio TV) prior to the introduction of the measure. Today, there are over 50 common channels which include general entertainment channels, such as ONE, Celestial Movies and FOX International, as well as sports channels, such as ESPN and STAR Sports. As pre-existing content deals expire and are renegotiated, we expect that the number of common channels will further increase. MDA, Madam, will continue to monitor the number of common channels over time, as it serves as a good indication of the success of the measure.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market The measure has also not prevented pay TV operators from acquiring exclusive content. Last year, all consumers, including non-pay TV consumers, were able to purchase from SCV, the Euro 2012 tournament on an a la carte basis for the first time without the need for a basic subscription. Mio TV subscribers were able to subscribe to the tournament and watch it via their Mio TV set-top
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Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market box even though SCV was the exclusive rights holder.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market On the industry front, pay TV operators are also striving for service differentiation and innovation. For example, besides the option of viewing subscribed content on TV, both SingNet and SCV are now offering their customers value-added services, such as viewing the content over mobile networks and the Internet. This has contributed to a growing and more vibrant pay TV market, as evidenced by the increase in the total number of pay TV subscribers from about 694,000 in 2009 to more than 900,000 last year.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market The Member has asked whether the public should expect the cost of pay TV packages to decline. Madam, I would like to emphasise once again that it is not the intent of the measure to lower the cost of pay TV subscriptions. These costs are driven by multiple factors that the measure will not be able to address. One key factor is the cost of acquiring premium content, sports or otherwise, which has been rising across the world, in particular, for the highly popular sports franchises. Members may be aware that in June 2012, the British rights to broadcast the 2013 to 2016 editions of the Barclays Premier League (BPL 2013/16) were acquired exclusively at slightly over £3 billion or $$6 billion, a 71% increase in price. This inevitably will translate into cost increases. In our region, the prices of the Barclays Premier League 2013/16 season and rights sold to various ASEAN countries have, indeed, reportedly seen significant increases.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Nonetheless, the MDA is mindful that consumers are concerned about the rising cost of pay TV subscriptions. We encourage consumers to signal their displeasure to the pay TV operators, so that, over time, the operators will be more responsive to consumer demand. In this way, we make market forces work in the interest of the consumer.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market In the past two years, we have seen a growing range of content choices for consumers. Today, pay TV operators, including nationwide TV providers SCV and SingNet and a number of niche pay TV retailers, offer more than 400 channels. This is a significant increase from the 236 channels that were available in 2010. Channels are also offering content that is premiering at the same time, or very soon after premiering in their home market. The industry has thus grown more competitive and vibrant.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Despite the benefits brought about by the measure, we cannot stay stagnant. The industry is continually evolving and the pace of technological changes is rapid. There is a need to regularly review the continued relevance of the measure. MDA will conduct this review as part of the triennial review of the
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Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Media Market Conduct Code later this year.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Madam, I am confident that as we continue to fine-tune the measure with the involvement of our stakeholders, our pay TV landscape will grow in vibrancy and consumers can look forward to better service offerings.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Mdm Speaker, I thank the Minister for his response. The objective of the cross-carriage policy, I suppose, was also to bring more players on board. And I hope that we will see a more competitive market. But I also would like to know from the Minister whether other broadcasters, apart from the two that he has mentioned, have expressed interest. What has been prohibiting other such operators from coming in? What measures does MDA have in place for operators who signed non-exclusive content to declare some of these principles of the contract agreement?
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market I understand that MDA requires other operators to provide evidence before they take action and, of course, these kinds of commercial arrangement, such as discount structures, length of delays before the next person comes in, are barriers for others to come in. My intent is to ensure that the cross-carriage policy has bite and that the regulatory framework also works.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Lastly, specifically, I think the Minister brought up the BPL issue. I know many Singaporeans are soccer fans. Given the cross-carriage policy, why have no other players come in? I know SingTel has signed on exclusively last October. We have not heard updates since then. There is market talk, but are there other loopholes that have gone into this non-exclusive arrangement that the current framework perhaps could not detect?
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Mdm Speaker, I thank the Member for the questions. Let me begin with the one that all of us have common interest in, which is BPL. All I can say is that negotiations are on-going. MDA is monitoring this very, very closely because the Member is right, and this relates to the Member's third question – whatever it is, we have to look at every contract that is agreed upon between the provider and the content owners, and ensure it does not, in any way, violate our cross-carriage measure.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market I want to assure the Member and the House that the MDA is on top of the situation. We are looking into this very, very closely to see whether there are any built-in barriers which will bypass the regulator. We are on the side of the consumer. We want to provide as many offerings as possible. At the moment, all we know is that SingTel has signed but we know that other providers are
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Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market interested and that they are in negotiations.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market To answer the Member's third question, thus far, we have not received any evidence or seen any evidence of circumvention of the measure but, as I have mentioned in my earlier reply, we will continue to review and see whether there may be other loopholes that we have not seen, and see how we can tighten that.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market In terms of the market, there is nothing to prevent other providers from coming in. In fact, there are a lot of other niche players that have come into the market. We are an open economy and we offer many factors which are positive to international providers. We have a very conducive business environment; we are English-speaking. And so, apart from the two providers, we have other providers like BBC and Discovery, who have anchored their operations here in Singapore. We are keen to open up the market as much as possible because we believe, by having a vibrant and competitive market, in the end, our consumers will benefit.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Mr Zaqy, last question, please.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Mdm Speaker, it is good that the Minister has answered on the issue of competitiveness and allowing other entrants to enter the market. There was talk initially that MDA was looking into a single set-top box so that it can enable other providers to come in. This has not taken off. I just want to ask the Minister if this is still on-going and would the MDA consider putting this in place to ensure there are lower barriers of entry for other providers.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market That is a good question. The Member asked about the idea of the common set-top box, which both MDA and IDA were keen to have. In fact, when we went out for the consultation and put out the call for proposals, we found that none of the proposals submitted was likely to achieve the desired outcomes that we wanted – minimal consumer inconvenience in dealing with multiple set-top boxes. We decided to proceed with a no-award decision.
Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market Having said that, we will continue to engage the industry, to ensure that whatever measures that we put in place will facilitate – as the Member rightly pointed out – a more vibrant and competitive eco-system. Thus far, despite the lack of having a common set-top box, it has not prevented other players from coming into the market, albeit niche players. As to whether other larger players will want to come into the market, it is really for them to make the evaluation.
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Impact of Government's Cross-carriage Measure on Competitiveness of Broadcast and Content Market At this point in time, we do not think there are regulatory hurdles to prevent them from coming in.
Broadband Speed 5 Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Communications and Information in view of the recent report on Singapore's broadband speed lagging behind that of South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong whether the Ministry has plans to improve the average broadband speed here.
Broadband Speed Mdm Speaker, many factors influence the broadband speeds that consumers experience. There are also different methodologies to measure broadband speeds and to make international comparisons. Over the past two years, there has, in fact, been a significant improvement in broadband speeds in Singapore. One major reason for this is the availability of fibre services over the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN) since September 2010. Madam, with your permission, could I ask the Clerk to distribute the handout, Exhibit 1, please?
Broadband Speed Yes, please. [Copies of the handout were distributed to hon Members. Please refer to Annex 1.]
Broadband Speed Madam, Exhibit 1 shows how our Internet access speeds have increased since 2010, when measured using Ookla NetIndex's methodology. Members will note that we have, in fact, overtaken a few countries during the period. As you can see, Singapore is represented by the green line and we have even exceeded the speeds in Japan and South Korea.
Broadband Speed Akamai's third quarter 2012 report ranks Singapore some positions lower. Clearly, Akamai's results are dependent on its methodology, its content delivery network, the location of its servers relative to the countries it measures, and how it streams its data. But the results point in the same direction, namely, that Singapore is amongst the leading group of countries in broadband access speed. This is a positive sign, considering that a significant amount of traffic is from overseas hosted sites. IDA also regularly measures broadband speeds in Singapore. To get a better sense of the connection speeds experienced by users in Singapore, may I ask Members to refer to Exhibit 2? [Please refer to Annex 2.] For example, in November 2012, the local average peak download speed ranged from 93 megabits per second (Mbps) to 98.3 Mbps for a 100 Mbps
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Broadband Speed plan. As expected, while international download speeds are expected to be lower, even in the case of US sites, the average peak download speed is still around 41.2 Mbps.
Broadband Speed IDA has also taken steps to improve international download speeds. There are on-going efforts to encourage the hosting or mirroring of more of such content in Singapore. This reduces the geographical distance that Internet traffic has to traverse, thereby speeding up access to desired content. Long-term regulatory measures have also been taken to facilitate the landing of submarine cable systems in Singapore and the cross-connections among these cable systems, making Singapore one of the most connected countries with high bandwidth capability today. This is particularly critical for our outbound Internet traffic to content overseas.