SINGAPORE Telecommunications chief executive Chua Sock Koong supports "economic intervention" from governments to fund a national broadband network, arguing it is too difficult to present a strong business case when fibre rollouts are at such an early stage of development.
"If you look at the rollout of a fibre network anywhere in the world, if you look at it purely on business returns, I don't think you have a full business case," Ms Chua said.
Referring to examples from the US, where Verizon is doing a fibre-to-the-home rollout in a select number of areas and where AT&T has slowed some of its deployment, Ms Chua said this showed the applications and technologies that would make fibre an attractive investment were yet to be discovered.
"So if you look at it purely as a commercial proposition, I think you still haven't got to the scale and you still haven't got the extent of services that sit on (the network) that can quite justify it commercially."
n Australia, the Labor government has been criticised for not agreeing to produce a cost-benefit analysis on the rollout of the $36 billion NBN, which aims to connect fibre-based broadband directly to 93 per cent of Australian premises in the next 10 years.
Ms Chua said the inability to fully appreciate the advances that would come with the speed and bandwidth of a fibre network tend to make such a proposition unpopular as a pure privately funded infrastructure project. "You do need some level of economic intervention if you want to get a network built ahead of when a business case would encourage (private) operators to build a network.
"So that's why the Singaporean government has come in with funding for the network and that is probably also the reason why the Australian government needed to look at some level of funding to get the network built."
Singapore is in the midst of its own fibre-based NBN rollout, which is expected to be completed in 2015.
But in the small Asian city-state, the government is only paying $1bn for the network.
As SingTel will face an NBN world more quickly than Telstra, Ms Chua said the group had already begun developing consumer products that would take advantage of the high speeds and bandwidth that would come with a fibre-based network. One of the group's key developments is an IPTV service, which will feature real-time high-quality video chatting and content sharing, cloud gaming and high-level aggregation of popular video content for entertainment and news.
In Australia, SingTel's wholly owned subsidiary Optus faces an NBN world but from the challenger's perspective.
Ms Chua said the strategic thinking would not differ dramatically in the two markets, just because one was used to being the challenger while the other was the incumbent.
Where Telstra has resisted the NBN because it has necessitated the structural division of the telco, SingTel (which counts the government's sovereign fund as a main investor) has been much more welcoming.
"If you look at NBN in Australia, that presents an excellent opportunity for a fixed communications network because I think in the past there was a lot of the network concentrated with one operator," Ms Chua said.
"With NBN, which will be an open access network, I think you will be able to see the entire fixed telecommunications industry reshaped and I think you'll see more competition and a lot more innovation and with that, improved productivity for businesses and added convenience for consumers."
But one thing Optus has faced that is vastly different to its parent is the consolidation and the potential fallout from the tie-up of Australia's two largest pay-television providers.
Optus chief Paul O'Sullivan has already called on the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to examine the merger closely and to guard against the locking up of content.
But SingTel group chief financial officer Jean Low went a little further yesterday, indicating that Australian regulations should mirror so-called "cross carriage" rules in Singapore that force pay-television providers with exclusive content deals to make it available to others.
"With the current merger of Foxtel and Austar, and Telstra having a 50 per cent stake in Foxtel, it would be a matter of some concern when you allow them to have that monopoly advantage," Ms Low said.
"If you look at the rollout of a fibre network anywhere in the world, if you look at it purely on business returns, I don't think you have a full business case," Ms Chua said.
Referring to examples from the US, where Verizon is doing a fibre-to-the-home rollout in a select number of areas and where AT&T has slowed some of its deployment, Ms Chua said this showed the applications and technologies that would make fibre an attractive investment were yet to be discovered.
"So if you look at it purely as a commercial proposition, I think you still haven't got to the scale and you still haven't got the extent of services that sit on (the network) that can quite justify it commercially."
n Australia, the Labor government has been criticised for not agreeing to produce a cost-benefit analysis on the rollout of the $36 billion NBN, which aims to connect fibre-based broadband directly to 93 per cent of Australian premises in the next 10 years.
Ms Chua said the inability to fully appreciate the advances that would come with the speed and bandwidth of a fibre network tend to make such a proposition unpopular as a pure privately funded infrastructure project. "You do need some level of economic intervention if you want to get a network built ahead of when a business case would encourage (private) operators to build a network.
"So that's why the Singaporean government has come in with funding for the network and that is probably also the reason why the Australian government needed to look at some level of funding to get the network built."
Singapore is in the midst of its own fibre-based NBN rollout, which is expected to be completed in 2015.
But in the small Asian city-state, the government is only paying $1bn for the network.
As SingTel will face an NBN world more quickly than Telstra, Ms Chua said the group had already begun developing consumer products that would take advantage of the high speeds and bandwidth that would come with a fibre-based network. One of the group's key developments is an IPTV service, which will feature real-time high-quality video chatting and content sharing, cloud gaming and high-level aggregation of popular video content for entertainment and news.
In Australia, SingTel's wholly owned subsidiary Optus faces an NBN world but from the challenger's perspective.
Ms Chua said the strategic thinking would not differ dramatically in the two markets, just because one was used to being the challenger while the other was the incumbent.
Where Telstra has resisted the NBN because it has necessitated the structural division of the telco, SingTel (which counts the government's sovereign fund as a main investor) has been much more welcoming.
"With NBN, which will be an open access network, I think you will be able to see the entire fixed telecommunications industry reshaped and I think you'll see more competition and a lot more innovation and with that, improved productivity for businesses and added convenience for consumers."
But one thing Optus has faced that is vastly different to its parent is the consolidation and the potential fallout from the tie-up of Australia's two largest pay-television providers.
Optus chief Paul O'Sullivan has already called on the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to examine the merger closely and to guard against the locking up of content.
But SingTel group chief financial officer Jean Low went a little further yesterday, indicating that Australian regulations should mirror so-called "cross carriage" rules in Singapore that force pay-television providers with exclusive content deals to make it available to others.
"With the current merger of Foxtel and Austar, and Telstra having a 50 per cent stake in Foxtel, it would be a matter of some concern when you allow them to have that monopoly advantage," Ms Low said.
