Axia NetMedia (30%), Singapore Telecommunications (30%), Singapore Press Holdings (25%) and SP Telecommunications Pte Ltd (15%) have formed a consortium to jointly bid on Singapore’s Next Generation National Broadband Network – Network Company (NetCo), as defined by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). 
The new OpenNet consortium, as it is known, proposes an open fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network. The open nature of the network is defined as follows:
(i) No individual parties having control over OpenNet
(ii) Three of the four OpenNet owners are not integrated telecommunications players hence there are no conflicting interests
(iii) the Network is specifically designed to enable choice by OpenNet customers, large and small
(iv) Interests are aligned as OpenNet’s commercial success depends on its customers’ success.
In the proposal, OpenNet said it will leverage SingTel’s existing extensive high-quality, subterranean ducting network, making the infrastructure less vulnerable to damage. OpenNet also promises to deliver the FTTH network at least two and a half years ahead of schedule of the iN2015 vision. OpenNet is positioned to complete the network rollout by June 2010.http://www.singtel.com
- In March 2008, Hong Kong’s City Telecom (CTI) and Singapore’s M1 and StarHub will form a consortium and jointly submit a bid to design, build and operate Singapore’s next generation broadband network, as specified by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s Request-for-Proposal (RFP) for the Network Company (NetCo).
- In December 2007, the government of Singapore outlined its vision for an open access Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) offering pervasive ultra-high speed connectivity by 2015. The plan calls for a minimum speed of 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink per end-user connection and scalability to 1 Gbps and above. Singapore is also calling for a separation between network layer operations (the Layer 1 physical network), the bandwidth service operators (Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity), and the retail services that ride on top.
The Next Gen NBN is expected to be available nationwide by 2015, although the first services, such as high-definition video conferencing, telemedicine, Grid Computing-on-Demand, security and immersive learning applications, should be running on the Next Gen NBN from about 2010.
Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority is issuing a Request-For-Proposal (RFP) open to all interested parties to submit their bid to design, build and operate the passive infrastructure layer of the Next Gen NBN.
Under this RFP, a Network Company, or NetCo, will be selected to design, build and operate this passive infrastructure that will carry the traffic for Next Generation Services. The deployment of active electronics such as switches and routers to manage the flow of traffic on the passive infrastructure will be done by what is called the Operating Company or OpCo, which will also be the entity that offers wholesale broadband access to downstream Retail Service Providers, or RSPs. The latter are the companies that provide Next Generation Services to end-users.
