IDA fines broadband company NetLink Trust S$450,000

• Has not met Residential and Non-Residential QoS standards
• Regulator says will continue to monitor performance closely

THE Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) said it has imposed a S$450,000 (US$323,950) fine on NetLink Trust, the network company of Singapore’s Nationwide Broadband Network, for failing to meet standards.
 
The company has not met the IDA’s Residential and Non-Residential Quality of Service (QoS) standards, the regulator said in a statement.
 
This follows a $S50,000 fine that was imposed last December.
 
In its statement, the IDA said that for its Residential QoS performance from July to December 2014, NetLink Trust fulfilled 88.46% to 92.21% of the residential service orders within three business days or by the Request for Activation  (RFA) Date, falling short of the minimum standard of 98%.
 
NetLink Trust fulfilled 90.28% to 94.52% of service orders within seven business days or by RFA + four business days – the expected standard is 100% of all orders.
 
IDA has imposed a financial penalty of S$50,000 on NetLink Trust for not meeting the Residential QoS standards, after considering the measures that it has committed to undertake to manage delays arising from end-users switching from one retail service provider to another.
 
These delays constituted the main bulk of its failed orders.
 
NetLink Trust has also not met IDA’s Non-Residential QoS standards for the assessment period of April to December 2014.
 
During this period, NetLink Trust fulfilled 38.27% to 73.75% of non-residential service orders within four calendar weeks of the date of the service order, or by the RFA date; falling short of the minimum standard of 80%.
 
NetLink Trust fulfilled 62.66% to 88.28% of the non-residential service orders within eight calendar weeks of the date of the service order, or within four calendar weeks of the RFA date; falling short of the standard of 100% of all orders.
 
NetLink Trust had earlier also been penalised S$240,000 for not meeting the Non-Residential QoS standards from Q2 to Q3 2013.
 
For the current assessment period, NetLink Trust has been penalised S$400,000 for not meeting the Non-Residential QoS standards, even after being given a six-month period from October 2013 to March 2014 to rectify its processes and improve its performance.
 
In this instance, IDA notes that NetLink Trust did subsequently improve its internal processes and managed to clear more than 90% of the outstanding orders.
 
However, despite the improvement, IDA said it still finds NetLink Trust’s remaining margins of failure unacceptable.
 
These factors were taken into consideration in determining the quantum of the financial penalty payable by NetLink Trust.
 
IDA said it expects NetLink Trust to improve its processes, and will continue to monitor its performance closely.
 
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