BESIDES phone and cable points, Singapore homes will soon get one more socket in the wall - for a thin fibre-optic cable to access ultra-fast broadband.

The technology, called Fibre to the Home (FTTH), has been proposed by the two consortia bidding to build Singapore's new cyber highways.

One of the bidders is the OpenNet group, made up of Axia NetMedia, SingTel, Singapore Press Holdings and SP Telecommunications.

The other bidder is Infinity Consortium,City Telecom, StarHub and MobileOne.

They submitted their bids on Monday.

When ready in as soon as two years, the Next Generation National Broadband Network promises 'life-like' video-conferencing as well as the ability to download a movie in mere minutes.

Both bidders for the project promise that the new cables will be installed with minimal disruption. Underground ducts which hold existing cables will be used.

This means there is no need to dig up so many roads.

Mr Allen Lew, SingTel's chief executive officer for Singapore, said it also helps that telecom risers - the vertical shafts in buildings used for running cables - are already easily available in many apartment blocks here.

A spokesman for Infinity Consortium said the network would pave the way for large-scale high-definition TV and medical services.

Already rolled out in Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, FTTH makes use of light signals to transmit data.

SingTel's Mr Lew said its system, now offers up to 25 megabits per second (Mbps), but the new, much-faster technology will bring new services like more high-definition channels.

While StarHub offers a faster 100 Mbps service using current technology, it has also decided to invest in a future network that can be used many decades down the road.

Experts say the upgrade will put Singapore right up there with the most wired-up countries in the world.

Mr Marc Einstein, from research firm Frost & Sullivan, expects broadband users to be the biggest winners.

He noted: 'Basically, they will get faster and cheaper broadband. Who would want 3 Mbps in future when you've got 1,000 Mbps?'