NetLink Trust fined S$150,000 for not meeting service standards
NetLink Trust has been fined S$150,000 by the Infocomm Media Development Authority for failing to activate services for homes and businesses in time. Photo: Netlink Trust
SINGAPORE - Fibre network operator NetLink Trust has been fined S$150,000 for failing to activate services for homes and businesses in time.
This is the sixth such penalty that the authorities have imposed on the company, formerly known as OpenNet, in the last five years.
While the firm showed an improvement over the last assessment period in providing timely connections to residential end-users, it still failed to fulfil the Quality of Service (QoS) standards required by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of meeting 98 per cent of its orders in three business days, or by the requested activation date.
Between July 2016 and June this year, the firm accomplished only 91.54 per cent to 94.83 per cent of its orders within the stipulated time frame, said the IMDA in a statement on Wednesday (Dec 27).
It also fell short of the IMDA’s requirement to fulfill all monthly residential service orders in seven business days, or four business days after the requested activation date. The company had accomplished only 92.75 per cent to 96.14 per cent of such orders.
Competition within the fibre broadband service market has resulted in an increasing number of households switching between providers to take advantage of plans that offer more value, the IMDA noted. In such cases, the initial service providers will need to hand over optical fibres to the other service providers.
While NetLink Trust has provided first fibre orders “in a timely manner”, it has taken a longer time to provide orders relating to such switches, said the IMDA.
For non-residential services, NetLink Trust managed to meet the required standards of fulfilling 80 per cent of orders within four calendar weeks of the order, or by the requested activation date for 10 out of 15 months, during the assessment period from January 2016 to March this year.
Its performance from January to May last year was close to, but still below the required standards, said the IMDA.
The firm was fined S$100,000 and S$50,000 respectively for non-compliance to residential and non-residential service standards.
In deciding on the penalty, the IMDA had considered NetLink Trust’s efforts to provide services on time, improvements shown and the nature of end-user demands. It also took into account delays outside the firm’s control, such as the time taken by building owners to allow access into their premises.
Last year, the firm had to shell out a record S$500,000 for similar shortcomings. In 2015, it was hit with a S$450,000 penalty.
NetLink Trust’s chief executive officer Tong Yew Heng said on Wednesday that they will continue to work with stakeholders to improve on performance.
“We take our regulatory obligation on service delivery seriously," said Mr Tong.
"We have adopted measures to improve our QoS performance. While an average of 94 per cent of residential orders were delivered within three business days, we recognise that this still fell short of IMDA’s Quality of Service standards… We thank our end-users for their patience and understanding as we strive to continue improving our service standards.”
