It’s official. There are more broadband connections in Singapore than there are households.

In January 2009, the household broadband penetration rate here reached 102.1 per cent, according to the latest figures from the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). The government regulator usually releases these figures two months after they are collected.

Already third in the world ranking of household broadband penetration in Q2 2008, Singapore looks likely to go up the rankings released regularly by research group Point Topic.

I’ve been a broadband advocate ever since I first got my hands on a trial cable modem back in the late-1990s, so I’m glad more people are getting on the bandwagon.

However, I’d say this watershed, now that we’ve reached it, should mark the start of even more efforts to bring broadband to those who don’t have it.

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It’s been a long wait, but Wi-Fi buffs here are finally going to get their hands on D-Link’s DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Media Router at the IT Show, which runs from this Thursday to Sunday.

This is a simultaneous dual-band router, which means it runs both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time. This gives you both the compatibility of good, old 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and “freedom from unfriendly neighbours” with the less congested 5GHz airwaves.

So far, Wireless N routers have mostly not come with “simultaneous” dual-band operations, except for Linksys’ WRT610N, launched here some months back.

To be sure, I was tempted by Linksys’ “UFO router” at the last Sitex show in November. But being a D-Link DGL-4300 gaming router user for years now, my target was always the DIR-855 - even if I had to buy it from the United States, where it was launched last year. …