SingTel joins consortium to bid for Singapore's new broadband network
By Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 05 May 2008 1817 hrs

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SINGAPORE - Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has joined a consortium of firms in a bid to build the ducts and wirelines for Singapore's planned ultra high-speed broadband network.

SingTel said in a statement on Monday that it placed a bid to be Singapore's network company (NetCo), along with Canada-based Axia NetMedia, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and SP Telecommunications, a unit of Singapore Power.

The consortium is called OpenNet. SingTel and AXIA NetMedia each have a 30 percent stake in the consortium, SPH has 25 percent and SP Telecommunications has 15 percent, the statement said, without giving the value of the bid.

The network, called the Next-Generation National Broadband Network, will allow users to surf the Web at speeds of at least 1 gigabit per second - 10 times faster than those available now - when it is fully completed by 2015.

The network is part of the government's Intelligent Nation 2015 or iN2015 blueprint to give Singapore seamless connectivity.

StarHub, MobileOne and City Telecom (HK) said in March they will also make a joint bid to be the NetCo.

OpenNet hopes it can draw on its members' expertise to beat the competition, and while it would not reveal how much it is pumping into the proposal, it assures users that broadband access will not cost more than what it is today.

OpenNet also says it can deliver the network at least two and a half years ahead of schedule of the iN2015 vision. OpenNet will seek shareholding funding to supplement a government grant of S$750m.

The super-fast broadband network is expected to cost between S$1b and S$2b.

SingTel will be contracted to finance the rollout of the network through a long-term lease agreement.

Allen Lew, SingTel CEO Singapore, said: "SingTel will be developing applications, interesting applications, for both residential and business base so that there will be a good reason for them to move across from the existing copper network to the fibre network and encourage take-up of this network that will be rolled out by the consortium."

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) will separately choose an operating company (OpCo) that will sell and direct bandwidth for the new network. - CNA/ir