Opinion, Telecommunications - Friday, December 2, 2011 12:01 - 98 Comments

Multi-dwelling units a major issue for the NBN

The following opinion/analysis piece is by Tony Brown (Twitter), a senior analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media. It originally appeared on Brown’s blog and is replicated here with his permission.

opinion In Asia Pacific, only two countries are undertaking nationwide government-backed rollouts of an FTTH-based national broadband network (NBN): Singapore and Australia, markets that could scarcely be more different in terms of geographic size and suitability for ubiquitous FTTH-network deployment.

Since Singapore’s NBN deployment is in a far more advanced stage than the Australian version – which is being deployed by the National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co.) – the Singaporean rollout can offer some indication to NBN Co. of what can be expected on the long road ahead.

In Singapore’s case, the principal problem that OpenNet – the SingTel-led consortium that is responsible for building, managing and operating the Singaporean NBN – is experiencing is the difficulty of gaining access to multiple-dwelling units (MDUs) such as high-rise apartment buildings and other large housing complexes to install FTTH connections, a problem that will be familiar to many other FTTH-network operators in the region. Although Singapore’s NBN has been connected to about three-quarters of the country’s buildings, as of end-June the network had just 40,200 subscriptions, well behind the government’s original expectations.

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