|
(Left to right) Chairman and CEO of Axia Netmedia Corporation, Art Price, CEO of Singtel (Singapore), Allen Liew, CEO of SPH, Alan Chan and Director of SP Telecommunications Pte Ltd, Sim Kwong Mian, at a press conference. -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
|
SINGAPORE moved a step closer to setting up its ultra-fast broadband network today, when two consortia came forward with plans that promised a futuristic network that would open the floodgate to new online services.
The network, to be rolled out islandwide in the next few years, will offer speeds 10 times faster than now.
By the time the deadline came for tender submission on Monday, two consortia including heavyweight telecom operators like SingTel, StarHub and M1 had submitted their bids in their respective consortia.
Winning this bid would avail them of up to $750 million in government funds. This will be used to lay cables to hook up homes, schools and offices.
The bids come two years after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong first unveiled plans for the project, which promises to bring the Republic on par with economic rivals like Hong Kong, which already enjoy such networks.
Monday's bids threw up a surprise in Singapore Press Holdings, the publisher of The Straits Times, which teamed up with SingTel, SP Telecommunications and Canada-based telco Axia NetMedia in its bid.
The team, called OpenNet, promises to complete rolling out the network by June 2010.
It also promises to wire up premises with fibre optic cables, which uses light signals to deliver almost infinitely more data than traditional copper wires now.
This, said the consortium, will come with less digging up of roads because SingTel and SP Telecommunications have existing fibre optic cables sunk in the ground.
They face strong contenders in a team made up of StarHub, MobileOne and Hong Kong's City Telecom, which said yesterday they had submitted their bid as well.
A spokesman said they would be using fibre optic technology, just like the rival consortium, but gave few other details.
|
