Page 40 - Annual Report 2014
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Q. Do you expect any changes Q. How did the company’s Overview
to the company’s strategic performance fare in 2014?
direction under the new Chairman? Strategy
Dave: The competitive landscape did not deter new
Dave: Mr Ernest Wong stepped down in April 2014 as Performance
entrants and in 2014, we signed our 27th RSP.
the Chairman of Nucleus Connect after 5 years. Mr Paul Governance
Ma is the current Chairman. Singapore’s key service provider has used us to
deploy its IPTV platform. This new platform promises Financials
In 2010, under Mr Wong’s leadership and guidance, pay TV viewers an improved navigation interface and
we commenced operations; marking a new chapter two-way interaction. This technology boost, slated
in Singapore’s info-communications industry. The to go commercial in 2015, should create a more
following year, we announced the readiness of our OSS/ attractive bundle proposition by bundling IPTV and
BSS (operations support system/business support Internet services.
system) and we were also the proud joint recipient of
the ‘Most Innovative Telecom Project’ award at the In 2014, we supported a RSP in the tender for the IDA
2011 Telecom Asia Awards. In 2012, the first large- contract, which comprises the provision of bandwidth
scale government Next Gen NBN project was deployed. services to the Government. Thus far, we have provided
connections to government data centres, and come
With Mr Paul Ma as the new Chairman, the company’s 2016, we expect to deliver networking capabilities to
overall direction remains on track to align ourselves hundreds more government agency sites. In 2015,
with the needs of RSPs and support them in these one of our key focuses is to play an integral role in the
times of rapid market growth. We will continue to various Smart Nation projects.
regularly update and improve our offerings in line with
the projected growth in take-up rates, and work closely The competitive landscape did not deter new
with RSPs to ensure a high level of performance and entrants and in 2014, we signed our 27th RSP.
reliability. We will also interact more actively with other
stakeholders as we try to improve to an even higher
service delivery standard.
Besides Internet access, the network is integral in Q. Is the Singapore fibre
providing other forms of network connectivity like broadband market maturing?
IPTV, mobile monitoring and camera surveillance
services for end-users. On that end, we make regular Dave: For 2015, we expect the RSPs to continue
improvements and upgrades to our backend core
networks and those are key reasons why we are able harnessing the consumer market’s growth as well as be
to constantly maintain network availability at 99.99%, more active in going after the commercial market and
which exceeds our ICO agreement. government tenders. We have achieved a 10% increase
in customer satisfaction level over 2013 and of course,
Q. Since October, OpenNet, we want to improve that score with higher reliability
the network company (NetCo), and operational efficiency. To help RSPs grow, we will
has become part of NetLink Trust. be offering competitive service bundles. As Singapore
Have there been any issues from moves towards the Smart Nation vision, we are ready
this change in ownership? to provide connectivity for all the various public and
private sector projects.
Dave: What we have experienced is that there is still
Singapore’s total optical fibre market has seen steady
a lapse in non-residential service activation period. shift in access speeds. From 100 Mbps initially, users
While acknowledging that NetLink Trust needs time to have migrated to 200 to 500 Mbps speed plans. Now,
work through this transition process, going forward, we 1Gbps plans are getting more common. Besides speed,
hope to see higher installation success rate of Next Gen the total user base has surged too. As at end 2014,
NBN commercial customers. On our side, we will work there were 708,100 subscriptions – up from 508,200 a
closely with the NetCo to identify the issues and rectify year ago. We expect this number to grow and we will be
them, so that end-users can enjoy fibre broadband kept busy for quite some time.
access quickly.
StarHub Ltd | Annual Report 2014 37
