Singapore - NBN is operation with several competing ISPs making retail offers

[rapidtvnews] Singapore’s next-generation national broadband network (NBN) is up and running, with wholesaler Nucleus Connect, a wholly-owned subsidiary of pay-TV operator StarHub, commencing commercial operations.

Nucleus Connect is the official operating company of the NBN, providing access to Retail Service Providers (RSPs) which have the contact with consumers. It was appointed by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA Singapore) in April 2009 to design, build and operate the active infrastructure of this super highway.

In a statement, Nucleus Connect said: “[Our] advanced and best of breed Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) and Optical Ethernet (OE) technologies will enable RSPs to develop innovative services at competitive prices for all businesses and homes in Singapore.”

David Storrie, Chief Executive Officer of Nucleus Connect said: “Nucleus Connect will continue to play a key role in the development of Singapore’s Next Gen NBN eco-system through our world-class active infrastructure, reliable service delivery and open access approach to the RSPs. We are confident that businesses and consumers can enjoy rich and innovative content, applications and services from a variety of RSPs in the near future.”

At launch, there will be five RSPs, including StarHub itself. The other operators are all also established players – SingTel, M1, LGA and SuperInternet. RSPs will also be able to purchase appropriate service levels to suit their customers’ requirements. For example, an RSP which primarily serves IPTV and online gaming customers may purchase wholesale bandwidth services with minimal delay (or latency) so as to enhance the gamers’ playing experience.

But access to the network will not be offered to consumers just yet, with some work still to be done, including interoperability testing. That allows RSPs to test and validate their services over a simulated NBN environment to ensure proper interconnection between the RSPs’ and Nucleus Connect’s network.

When it is ready to be offered to homes and businesses, the network should offer speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Services slated for the new network include internet protocol television (IPTV) and high-definition video surveillance as well as high-speed internet access.

Nucleus Connect is offering a wholesale price of S$21 a month for a 100 Mbps residential end-user and S$121 for a 1 Gbps connection. Non-residential premises will cost S$75 a month and S$860 respectively.

Neil Montefiore, CEO of StarHub, said: “The Next-Gen NBN marks a major turning point in Singapore’s telecoms and broadband industry. It will undoubtedly offer us significant opportunities to deliver new and enhanced next-generation multimedia services for businesses and consumers across the island… It will also give us an additional platform to deliver pay TV content that will meet the high- standards that we have already established with our quality video broadcast on our proven cable infrastructure.”

Karen Kooi, Chief Executive Officer of M1, said: “We are excited to play a role in the development of a vibrant and competitive infocomm market in Singapore. M1 has been working closely with Nucleus Connect towards the launch of Next Gen NBN services and we look forward to continuing our partnership. Supported by Nucleus Connect’s reliable service delivery and open access approach, we will continue to develop new and innovative services on the new fibre network for homes and offices.”

Allen Lew, CEO Singapore, SingTel, said: “The availability of an ultra high-speed fibre network through the NGNBN and our own fibre infrastructure presents SingTel with significant opportunities to break new grounds in terms of service innovation and value creation. We will leverage our reputation of a reliable network operator, astute customer insights and an effective partner ecosystem to deliver personalised customer-centric applications, which will pique the imagination of consumers and increase the productivity of businesses."

SingTel is promising, among others, two packages offering pay-TV - exCite Home and exPlore Home. ExPlore Home Sports will offer "the best of" the Mio TV Sports package while ExPlore Home will offer 15 free movies from Mio's offering as part of that package. Consumers can, of course, just opt to take Mio TV over SingTel's network as they can currently.

Singapore NBN open for business