Ascendas-Singbridge in largest commercial deployment under IMDA Fibre Ready Scheme

SINGAPORE — About 70 commercial buildings under the Ascendas-Singbridge group will have fibre infrastructure rolled out in their premises by 2018 under a S$200 million government scheme that subsidises the fibre installation costs for non-residential building owners, and also makes the process easier and faster.

With this move — the largest commercial deployment under the scheme to date — close to 200 buildings will have tapped on the Fibre Ready Scheme (FRS), Mr Khoong Hock Yun, Assistant Chief Executive of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said on Thursday (Nov 3). IMDA also encouraged more building owners to sign up before the end of January 2018, as there is still sufficient funding for non-residential buildings.

“In today’s digital economy, access to cost-effective high-speed fibre connectivity is a very important consideration for Singapore businesses looking to grow and compete on the global stage. The FRS is part of our continuous product enhancement initiatives and it results in a faster turnaround time for our customers applying for fibre broadband services,” said Mr Tan Yew Chin, chief executive officer (Singapore & South-east Asia), of sustainable urban and business space solutions provider Ascendas-Singbridge. M1 is the telco selected by the group to install the infrastructure, but after that, tenants can choose any fibre broadband provider to have their service activated.

Before the FRS, tenants would have needed to individually hire contractors to lay out the cables and other equipment, resulting in more logistical hurdles and a longer processing time. Now, with the one-time deployment method under the scheme, contractors are no longer needed, cutting the fulfilment of corporate fibre broadband orders from four weeks to about two weeks, according to M1.

Previously, building owners also posed an obstacle to the roll-out of fibre installation on their premises, citing disruptions to their operations.

“One of the key challenges for fibre deployment in Singapore, for non-residential (buildings) was the long lead time. A lot of challenges came from building owners, a lot of disruption to (them), need to open panels, create scaffolding. What the FRS does is that we pre-lay the cables to every single tenant… now it is very efficient,” said Mr Willis Sim, Chief Corporate Solutions and Sales Officer, M1.

To date, 47 buildings have completed installation under the FRS, a programme launched in 2014 by the IMDA which subsidises up to 90 per cent of the cost of new in-building infrastructure, capped at S$300,000. These buildings include Far East Plaza, Novena Specialist Centre and West Coast Plaza. To receive the funding, said the IMDA, building owners are expected to facilitate any additional work required to provide fibre services to enterprises.