By Alessandro Mauro
To submit comments and updates: alessandro.mauro@telecomitalia.it
In Singapore the government adopted a model that introduce a three layer system:
- there is a company that owns the passive infrastructure (called Netco or Network Society); following a public auction, the choice fell on OpenNet, a joint venture founded in 2008 by the merger of four operators with the mission of building and managing the new fiber network; it provides pipes, ducts and dark fiber to a set price;
- a wholesale operator manages the active infrastructures including the central offices and the transmission equipment (it is called OpCo or Operating Company); in March 2009 the company StarHub, which operates through Nucleus Connect, was chosen;
- finally, a number of providers of retail services (Retail Service Providers, RSPs) act in competition with each other.
The structural separation for NetCo and the operational separation for OpCo was made mandatory in order to ensure to the system low barriers to entry for RSPs.
Singapore's Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network was officially launched in September 2010. Five RSPs - LGA, M1, SingTel, StarHub, and SuperInternet - signed up to Nucleus Connect master interconnection offer. With the exception of LGA, these RSPs already launched services on its network, which already covers 40% of Singapore "homes and buildings".
Useful links:
http://www.ida.gov.sg/
http://www.opennet.com.sg/
http://www.nucleusconnect.com/