Yet again -- thought they had one :-) Singapore Govt Seeks Ideas,Partners For Broadband Network]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Singapore Govt Seeks Ideas,Partners For Broadband
Network
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 08:03:11 -0800
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>

Friday March 3, 7:53 PM
Singapore Govt Seeks Ideas,Partners For Broadband Network
<http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/060303/15/3z4ia.html>
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--The Singapore government late Friday said it
will begin to seek ideas and partners to roll out a national
broadband network this month.

The Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastruture, or Next Gen NII,
will comprise both wireless and wired networks, the city-state's
Infocomm Development Authority said.

Plans for the new broadband network were first broached at the Budget
announcement last month. No details were given then.

The government's plan to build an advanced national broadband
infrastructure could stir up more competition in the local market
dominated by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (T48.SG) and StarHub
Ltd. (T54.SG), as this could lead to new players and squeezed margins.

The nation's smallest mobile phone operator by customers MobileOne
Ltd. (M31.SG) said it welcomes the government's plan as it will "help
lower entry barriers for service providers and ultimately benefit
consumers."

"We look forward to finding out more details so that we can factor
these into our own deployment plans for wireless broadband," it said
in a statement.

MobileOne recently started trials for its own wireless broadband
network.

SingTel said it "will actively engage the IDA in the coming months."
It didn't elaborate.

StarHub also said it was "keen to participate and work closely with
IDA on this effort."

IDA said the wired broadband network will have ultra-high access
speeds capable of beyond 1 Gbps (gigabits per second; 1Gbps is
1,000Mbps) - more than 500 times the common speed of 2 Mbps today.

Some industry watchers believe that such a network could cost as much
as US$1.2 billion. IDA said the government is prepared to offer some
funding to kick-start this project. It didn't elaborate.

Singapore has a broadband penetration rate of just above 50%.

High access speeds will help facilitate the use of bandwith-intensive
applications like making phone calls and watching videos and
television over the Internet.

The IDA said the private sector is expected to build, own and operate
the wired national broadband network for which a Request-For-Concept
(RFC) will be called for this month. Proposals for the project are
expected to be called for in June.

The government plans to evaluate all proposals by the end of 2006.

In early 2007, the wired national broadband network project will be
awarded to a private sector partner.

IDA added that the appointed operator is expected to complete at
least 50% of the rollout in the first three years.

For the wireless broadband network, IDA said the government will
initially work with the private sector to speed up the deployment of
the network in key areas, including the central business district and
HDB town centers.

IDA said it will announce a Call-For-Collaboration this month and
expects the rollout of commercial services to begin as early as
October this year.

More details on the matter will be disclosed over the next few weeks,
it said.

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>


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