British firm pureLiFi, which was established in 2012 to develop Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) technology that utilises light to transmit data wirelessly, has been given clearance by Singapore’s Info-communications Development Media Authority (IMDA) to undertake Li-Fi trials in the city-state. The move coincides with an announcement that the IMDA has decided to waive frequency fees associated with Li-Fi testing to encourage and facilitate technical trials of this technology in Singapore with immediate effect. pureLiFi has so far released three versions of its Li-Fi system including LiFi-X which consists of the world’s first Li-Fi dongle and is also available in the form of a LiFi-integrated luminaire resulting from pureLiFi’s partnership with French lighting manufacturer Lucibel.
Li-Fi networks are seen by some as an answer to the problem of ever-increasing bandwidth demands. Unlike traditional telecom devices that use radio frequency signals for data transmission, Li-Fi uses the visible light portion of the electro-magnetic spectrum between 400THz and 800THz, opening up the possibility of peak 1Gbps throughput while alleviating demand for traditional radio spectrum.