Source : Business Times – 6 Aug 2009
THE mammoth task of wiring up Singapore for ultra high-speed broadband access has entered the home stretch with the start of residential installation works by project winner OpenNet.
In this phase of the project, the firm extends its new underground fibre-optic cables to all local homes. A new plastic ducting system and wall plate will be installed in each residential unit, much like how Singapore Telecom’s fixed-line telephone wiring and StarHub’s cable infrastructure reaches homes today.
Some 32,000 residential premises are expected to be fitted with the new fibre-optic links during initial deployment. These are spread across areas such as Tanjong Pagar, Jurong, Macpherson, Pasir Ris, Holland Road and Pasir Panjang.
OpenNet will start sending letters to homeowners from next week to request an installation appointment.
‘It is important that homeowners work with OpenNet to make sure this is implemented smoothly because the first pass is free,’ said Acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew.
When the time window for complimentary installation lapses, apartment owners will have to pay $220 to get a fibre-optic connection, while the fee for wiring landed property is $450.
Once the fibre-optic wall plate is in place, Singaporeans will be able to subscribe to new bandwidth- sapping services such as high-speed Internet packages that will allow a full-length movie to be downloaded in seconds instead of hours. Such offerings could make their debut as early as next year, according to Mr Lui.
‘We hope, by the end of the first half of 2010, we will see commercial services being made available,’ he told reporters during a tour of some fibre-ready apartment blocks in Cantonment Close yesterday.
According to OpenNet’s project and operations director Tiong Onn Seng, 1,200 workers will be deployed to wire up residences over the next few months, but the number could be increased to meet the company’s installation schedule.
OpenNet – a joint venture between Canadian firm Axia Netmedia, SingTel, Singapore Press Holdings and Singapore Power unit SP Telecom – expects to achieve 15 per cent coverage by the end of this year.
More than half of local homes will be fibre-ready by 2010 and nation-wide rollout is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.
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