You're fined: IMDA smacks NetLink Trust with $500,000 fine

It has not fulfilled IMDA's quality of service standards.

The IMDA has imposed a financial penalty of $500,000 on NetLink Trust (NLT) for not meeting the residential and non-residential Quality of Service standards for service activation.

During the assessment period between January 2015 to June 2016, NLT has fulfilled 87.15% to 93.19% of residential service orders within three business days or by the Request for Activation1 (RFA) Date in each month. This, however, is still below the QoS standard of 98%  required by IMDA.

"NLT fulfilled 89.95% to 94.08% of residential service orders within seven business days, or an additional four business days from the RFA date, for which the standard is 100%. IMDA has thus imposed a financial penalty of $200,000 on NLT for not meeting the residential QoS standards during this period," IMDA noted.

More so, NLT has not fully met IMDA’s non-residential QoS standards for the assessment period. From January 2015 to December 2015, the company fulfilled 29.28% to 82.68% of non-residential service orders within four calendar weeks of the date of the service order, or by the RFA date.

NLT has thus failed to meet the minimum monthly standard of 80% except for December 2015 where NLT has performed above the standard. NLT fulfilled 45.06% to 90.72% of these service orders within eight calendar weeks of the date of the service order, or within four calendar weeks of the RFA date, for which the service standard is 100%. IMDA has thus imposed a financial penalty of $300,000 on NLT for not meeting the nonresidential QoS standards.

In determining the two financial penalties, IMDA took into consideration NLT’s previous QoS failures, and the operational improvements made by NLT to raise its performance across the board. IMDA also noted that a number of delayed residential service orders were churn orders or second fibre orders. These necessitated the use of a second optical fibre, or handing over of fibre between service providers.

IMDA expects NLT to ensure that there is sufficient spare fibre in residential buildings to cater to all residential orders, and continue to improve its processes and ensure it fully meets all QoS standards. IMDA will continue to monitor NLT’s performance closely.