Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Microsoft have joined hands in a strategic partnership to help accelerate the development of Singapore’s 5G ecosystem.
The two parties signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) on Tuesday, November 12, which was announced by Minister for Communications and Information, S Iswaran.
This took place at the launch of Microsoft’s global-first Experience Center Asia housed at their new Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters.
IMDA and Microsoft will make available a 5G development environment for participating government agencies, enterprises and technology companies. They will be able to co-create 5G use cases that can lead to the development of new 5G applications, services and capabilities.
The two companies will be providing 5G technical capabilities consultancy and sharing best practices to participating organisations.
“With 5G slated for rollout in Singapore in 2020, the partnership with IMDA draws upon our respective strengths to enable a future of ubiquitous computing through 5G, cloud and edge technologies,” said Kevin Wo, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore.
IMDA’s PIXEL innovation space will be the first open testbed to serve as a shared 5G Living Lab. Slated for launch in the first half of 2020, PIXEL will also enable Centerto-Center collaboration with the Microsoft Technology Center, which is a part of the Experience Center Asia.
IMDA and Microsoft will also jointly explore 5G use cases in strategic clusters. These include Smart Estates, Urban Mobility, Industry 4.0, Maritime Operations, Consumer and Government applications.
“We believe that this collaboration with Microsoft will help to foster greater capabilities development for 5G applications and services," said Tan Kiat How, Chief Executive, IMDA. "IMDA looks forward to more partnerships with enterprises, technology companies, research institutions and Institutes of Higher Learning in our efforts to drive 5G innovation to support Singapore’s Digital Economy.”