NetLink fined for not meeting service standards

SINGAPORE — NetLink Trust, the company in charge of building the Republic’s high-speed fibre broadband network, was fined S$450,000 for falling short of service-activation standards in homes and businesses today (Oct 21) – its highest-ever penalty for such shortcomings.

This is the fourth such fine levelled by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) upon the company, formerly known as OpenNet, in two years.

The bulk of the fine — S$400,000 — was slapped on NetLink Trust for breaching non-residential Quality of Service (QoS) standards from April to December last year.

Under IDA guidelines, the company has to install fibre broadband services for at least four in five business orders within four weeks of inking the deal. But it failed to meet the deadline and only managed fewer than three in four of these orders.

The IDA also requires all business orders to be completed within eight weeks; again, NetLink Trust fell short by fulfilling less than 90 per cent.

And for failing to meet residential Quality of Service (QoS) standards from July to December last year, the company was fined S$50,000.

At least 98 per cent of residential orders must be connected within three business days, but the company only finished up to 92.21 per cent of such orders on time.

NetLink Trust is also obligated to connect all residential orders within seven business days. However, it fulfilled less than 95 per cent.

In its earlier brushes with the IDA, NetLink Trust was penalised S$200,000 in November 2013 for breaching residential QoS standards between April and June that year.

This was followed by a S$240,000 fine — issued in May last year — for installation delays affecting business users between April and September 2013.

In December last year, the company was fined S$50,000 for failing to meet residential QoS standards in the first half of the year.

However, the heaviest penalty handed out to NetLink Trust to date stemmed from its inability to provide fibre-optic broadband services to, potentially, 120,000 homes and 760 non-residential buildings. It was fined S$550,000 in November 2013.

Acknowledging its shortcomings, Netlink Trust said the current performance standards showed that “there is still some way to go” in terms of meeting the IDA’s service standards.

Corrective measures have also been put in place, although the results may take time to show, said Mr Ng Yong Hwee, the company’s chief executive officer.

“We are stepping up recruitment and training, improving administrative procedures and customer service, and bolstering relationships with building owners and management. We are also rolling out initiatives, such as the pre-wiring of commercial buildings with fibre and increasing fibre capacity, across our network,” he added.

As at August, NetLink Trust had expanded its coverage to cover more than 1.3 million households and over 28,000 non-residential buildings.

Noting that NetLink Trust had improved its internal processes and cleared more than 90 per cent of outstanding orders, the IDA said: “Despite the improvement, IDA still finds NetLink Trust’s remaining margins of failure unacceptable. IDA expects NetLink Trust to improve its processes, and will continue to monitor NetLink Trust’s performance closely.”