STARHUB has won the four-horse race in the bid to install the networking equipment that will direct data traffic across Singapore's upcoming broadband network.

Technology sector regulator Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) on Friday announced that StarHub has been appointed the operating company (OpCo), the final missing piece in the drive to build a faster and more competitive broadband market beyond the ability of any single party.

Singapore's current Internet infrastructure was built by SingTel and StarHub, which control who can use it and how much to charge them for it.

A new fibre-optic network capable of speeds ten times faster than today's is now being built, and the IDA is making sure no one party could monopolise it or lock competitors out of it.

It has offered generous subsidies to OpenNet and StarHub, which will get the new network up and running by 2012 - but they will have to sell access to this new network to anyone, at the same price - and this includes their competitors. OpenNet is laying the cables, while StarHub will install the equipment to direct traffic on it.

IDA chairman Yong Ying-I on Friday said that while the contenders put in 'good bids', StarHub's stood out for 'the competitiveness of the (price of its) wholesale offering'. Ms Yong declined to elaborate as the bids are confidential.

The other bidders were Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), MobileOne (M1), and the IntelliNet consortium comprising networking equipment company Cisco and Canadian telecommunications firm Axia NetMedia.

The OpCo contract comes with a government grant of up to $250 million, to help defray the cost of the networking equipment. Mainboard-listed StarHub, Singapore's second-largest telco, will be putting in $750 million of its own money over the project's 25-year contract period.

As part of its winning bid, StarHub has also committed to selling broadband access to this new network to Internet service providers at a wholesale rate of $21 per month for a 100Mbps residential line. Prices for business users will be $75 per month. StarHub will also have to meet IDA's adoption targets of 330,000 residential users and 80,000 business users by 2015. It is expected to begin commercial services by the first half of 2010.

Faster Youtube videos aside, consumers and businesses can also look forward to new services like virtual reality worlds and hyper-realistic video-conferencing not possible on today's networks.

StarHub chief executive officer Terry Clontz said the company was 'delighted' to be picked, adding that its bid was 'the culmination of years of StarHub's extensive experience in managing and operating what is already Singapore's highest speed broadband network'.