NGNBN's lacklustre takeup blamed on high costs

It takes S$2,000 for OpenNet to connect a commercial user.

CIMB expected the IDA to step in to boost the next generation national broadband network (NGNBN) rollout process, but the analyst revealed that the root of the poor takeup of connections to commercial buildings is the high costs for OpenNet.

Here's more from CIMB:

The directive have set aside installations quota for commercial customers at 40/day. However, we do not think it is enough to address the low number of connections to commercial buildings. We gather that the root of this problem lies with the high cost of about S$2,000 for OpenNet to connect a commercial user when it is compensated only S$363 by the government.

This is most positive for SingTel which has been garnering the largest share of fibre net additions, which we estimate to be about 60%. It is a small positive for StarHub as fibre broadband is ARPU-enhancing since most of its cable customers take up the lower-end plans. It is also a small positive for M1 as it will be better equipped to tap the fixed broadband market for a new revenue stream.