Singapore, 20 July 2016 – In the first move of its kind by a financial institution here, OCBC Bank today began providing free WiFi access to an estimated 30,000 visitors a day at multiple public locations. The initiative, intended to help meet rising demand for mobile broadband, comes in the wake of the Government’s announcement this April that it will double the number of Wireless@SG hot spots to 20,000 by 2018 – thereby making Singapore the country with the highest hot spot density in the world.

Anybody will be able to surf the Internet for free on OCBC Free Wi-Fi Zones at selected locations on Orchard Road as well as at OCBC Centre, the Singapore Sports Hub and 33 OCBC Bank branches.

There are 5 hotspots within the Orchard Road area. Wi-Fi coverage extends up to a 100-metre radius from each of the five bus stops situated outside the Royal Thai Embassy, Tangs, Far East Plaza, Royal Plaza at Scotts and The Heeren.

In partnership with Wi-Fi network owner Consistel, OCBC Bank has sponsored Wi-Fi access across the Sports Hub complex. Visitors to any facility at the Sports Hub – from the Singapore National Stadium, Singapore Indoor Stadium, Kallang Wave Mall and OCBC Arena to OCBC Aquatic Centre, Water Sports Centre, Sports Hub Library and Singapore Sports Museum – can enjoy free Wi-Fi access.

Leveraging OCBC Bank’s network of branches across Singapore, members of the public in the vicinity of OCBC Centre will also enjoy free Wi-Fi access. 33 OCBC Bank branches in highly-populated areas like ION Orchard, Causeway Point, Ang Mo Kio, NEX Shopping Mall, Toa Payoh and Vivo City now offer free Wi-Fi access to branch visitors (For full list of locations, refer to Annex A).

More than 30,000 users are expected to benefit each day from this free Wi-Fi access across over 700 hot spots.

Mr Dennis Tan, Head of Consumer Financial Services Singapore at OCBC Bank said: "Being at the forefront of the digital play in Singapore for the past few years, it is natural for OCBC to do our part to support the government’s push for wireless Singapore by providing this service through more than 700 OCBC Free Wi-Fi Zones across town. By availing this free WIFI service to the public, whether you are an OCBC customer or not, we hope to entrench OCBC’s leading digital position in everyone’s minds."

The free Wi-Fi access is an extension of OCBC Bank’s string of digital initiatives launched in the past year – all in furtherance of its vision of providing the digital advantage to customers. The initiatives include the launch of an Application Programming Interface (API) platform, voice recognition technology, OCBC OneTouch (thumbprint biometric authentication for mobile banking apps), OneWealth (an integrated wealth management app) and a financial literacy app for children.

In addition, OCBC Bank’s new Fintech & Innovation unit, The Open Vault at OCBC, is currently running an accelerator programme with eight global and local start-ups, to drive ideation, prototyping and deployment of new technologies to fuel breakthroughs in banking and insurance.