SINGAPORE — The Republic’s fibre broadband network provider NetLink Trust has been fined S$50,000 for failing to meet Quality of Service (QoS) standards in providing timely connections to residential end users in the first six months of the year.

While the company, formerly known as OpenNet, showed a significant improvement in providing timely connections to such users, it fell short of the minimum standards, said the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), which imposed the fine, yesterday.

This is the third time in less than two years that NetLink Trust and its predecessor OpenNet have been fined for failing to meet service standards.

NetLink Trust failed to fulfil the QoS standard of meeting 98 per cent of its orders in three business days or by the requested activation date — accomplishing only 85.34 per cent to 92.48 per cent of its orders in the stipulated time frame.

It also fell short of the standard of fulfilling all service orders in seven business days or four business days after the requested activation date.

Apart from imposing the fine, the IDA also set out several service improvements that the firm must undertake. These include improving its “service provisioning capacity” — increasing the number of appointment slots — by altering the way it responds to service demand.

For delayed orders, it will be required to raise the rebate payable to requesting licensees and pay the maximum rebate amount in a shorter time. Requesting licensees are firms that operate the active infrastructure, such as transmission equipment, of the next-generation broadband network.

Wherever appropriate, NetLink Trust must also provide rebates for any delays — beyond a certain specified time period — in engaging building developers, owners or Management Corporation Strata Titles in deploying fibre to end users.

In addition, requesting licensees must return unused fibre lines to NetLink Trust as soon as end users’ retail subscriptions end. The company must then make available and reassign these fibre lines promptly for use by other licensees.

These improvements are in addition to changes proposed by NetLink Trust to its Interconnection Offer — a standard offering that outlines the firm’s prices and the terms and conditions of its services — to raise service standards, the IDA noted.

NetLink Trust CEO Ng Yong Hwee said yesterday that the firm respected the authority’s decision. He also noted that the company had been taking steps to enhance its service delivery to meet the IDA’s QoS standards, including raising installation capacity during IT shows and extending service provisioning to Saturdays.

“We have made good progress and will continue to evaluate our installation process and implement new systems (and) initiatives to further improve service delivery,” Mr Ng said in a statement.

In November last year, the company was fined S$750,000 for its inability to provide fibre-optic broadband services to potentially 120,000 homes and 760 non-residential buildings, and for failing to meet service standards for residential end users, particularly in service activation.

It was later fined S$240,000 for falling short of QoS standards for non-residential broadband connections between April and September last year.