Singapore's next-generation national broadband network (NG-NBN), initiated in 2006 by IDA and with government funding of S$1 billion, has recently been attracting headlines - for all the wrong reasons.
The fiber rollout is reportedly on target to reach 95% of homes and businesses by the middle of the year. According to OpenNet's figures, an average of more than 10,000 broadband users have been signing up per month for the past year. However, for many consumers migrating to fiber has been far from smooth with delays - in some cases up to six weeks - to access the network after they sign up with ISPs.
Considering the scale, the NG NBN implementation has had its own challenges and it's not surprising to see many issues cropping up. OpenNet had pledged to connect up to 2,050 new subscribers a week and turn them on within three days in its service contract approved by the IDA. Among other things, complaints about the excessive waiting time for activation of fiber services, unsatisfactory response to increasing demand, inflexible service offerings, delays in installations in commercial buildings and unreasonable pricing have put OpenNet under pressure, straining some relationships and prompting a lot of finger pointing. Full story
