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.
Had it hooked up at home, UTTERLY SHIT workmanship. Many of the 1st yr apprentices that i’ve worked with would not have left ANY job in that state, even if no one else would have seen it.The list goes on, all i can suggest is stand next to them and hold the contractors hand until the work is completed (Can’t call them a Tradesman). Take some Pride in your work, do it once and do it right.
home renovation these days are quite expensive due to the rise in material cost”–
this year we had a home renovation. sometimes home renovation is quite costly.,””
Home renovation is sometimes very expensive but it is worth the expense to beautify your home.;`;
Landon: See this URL for details on bluray downloads: http://bit.ly/VdzWc
Where do you download some blue ray movie trailers in HD ?,-;
Kev: Free installation during roll out is probably their way or the highway. I’m not sure if things would change after this but they own infrastructure up to the termination point so they wanted stuff done only their way up to that point.
Jackson: If you visit local forums discussing “internet / bandwidth”, complains about slowness or insufficient bandwidth are centered around inability to download pirated content at their desired published speed. I hardly see legitimate complain about insufficient bandwidth for legal uses of consumer internet 🙂
There are already 10-15Mbps connections to the home. This is much more than enough for internet video and telephony and other high data rate applications for the home. The only use for such high speeds I can think of is to pirate blu-ray movies!
Albert: Ah I see, that’s very bad then to provide no option. I certainly wouldn’t take up the offer myself unless I could involve my own tech to do the installation inside my premises.
Sri: Fibre optic cable like any other can be bent but follows strict rules to calculate it’s bend radius. 20 or so years ago it would not have been possible to bend it how it’s bent in the photo’s Alfred has shown.
The photo makes it look like it’s a 90deg bend, but it isn’t 🙂
Sort of like wrapping a wire around a pencil, it can achieve quite a lot in small spaces.
It’s my understanding that fibre cannot be positioned around corners, something about bending light and all that. I’ve been told in Europe and Japan, fibre installations are strictly to one point in the home and you can’t work round corners. Your photos show otherwise. Am I mistaken here or has the technology evolved? I’ve heard that bendable fibre is available but always thought it would be too expensive for a mass market deployment like our NBN. Anyone care to share some insight?
Kev, there’s no option for in-wall or invisible cabling. That’s why people are complaining about the trunking. The contractors will show up with a free installation that involves plastic trunking from the door frame all the way to your TV location(recommended) or nearest power point.
It is a free installation, trunking design and inlet path non-negotiable, take it or leave it.
I would suspect that the majority of houses would not look as terrible as the ones provided in the photos? For the most part I’d imagine the cabling would be in the wall, invisible to the owner?
Agree with Albert here. When it comes to outdoor installations, I think Opennet has done a good job using existing underground trunking/risers in high-rise buildings.
But it’s different inside the home. Singaporeans are house-proud. It’s okay if you already have existing plastic trunking, but if you have concealed wiring throughout, a white plastic trunking running across the living room can be unsightly.
Check out some pix here: http://www.spug.sg/forums/showthread.php?97482-Roll-out-of-OpenNet/page8&highlight=opennet
They won’t be ugly in a house where lot’s of other cables are exposed on trunking. They an *are ugly* addition to a house where all other cable trunking is hidden.
Folks on online shared that they tried very hard to work with the NBN contractors to incorporate the cable into their current renovation works. Unfortunately NBN contractors were adamant in doing it only their way and on their schedule only, which is an exposed cable trunking.
You’re comparing public infrastructure vs internal home renovation where you have the power of choice. Instead of telephone polls and bridges, compare the ugly NBN cable with you picking up a new black mercedes from the showroom with a strip of white paint across the bonnet 😉
Albert, the cables are not that ugly, have a look at Tas NBN?
They are less ugly than Cable networks cable, because they are smaller.
Everyone keeps bouncing on about how ugly the cables are, but look at whats around us.
Houses
Cars
Roads
Telephone Polls
Bridges
Do you complain about them as much as you do about a single cable on a poll ?
Seriously get a life people!!!!!
Did they mention how ugly the cables would look like, especially at the corners?