Lack of knowledge main reason for homes refusing fibre

What’s the next-gen broadband network all about? What can it do for me?

Those questions were topmost on the minds of some home owners who have so far rejected a free offer to hook up to Singapore’s ultra-fast fibre optic broadband network, according to the government agency in charge of rolling it out.

“Some people don’t even know what’s NBN (next-gen broadband network), they see the letter (of offer) and they throw the letter away,” said Assistant CEO for the Infocomm Development Authority, Khoong Hock Yun, at a media briefing here at CommunicAsia.

To address this, he told reporters that the agency has been using traditional media to reach out to users to explain the benefits of the new network, which is being built by Opennet. The company is offering to install for free a fibre link to homes, which is expected to offer 1Gbps and faster for future services such as tele-medicine.

So far, 35 per cent of Singapore has been hooked up to the speedy network, well on time for the target of reaching 60 per cent of homes here by the end of 2010, and 95 per cent by June 2012, says IDA. However, when asked, executives here did not say what the takeup rate was for homes offered the free fibre installation.

The NBN was expected to go commercial in the first half of this year, but this has so far been limited to a handful of co-location services offered by Nucleus Connect, the OpCo or operating company for the Singapore NBN.