ST : Condos must allow new broadband cabling

Nov 17, 2010

Condos must allow new broadband cabling

They face fines if they reject wiring, must bear cost if they want cables hidden, says IDA

By Chua Hian Hou

CONDOMINIUM residents will be able to enjoy high-speed fibre broadband after all.

The Government yesterday said that all condominiums will be required to allow the installation of the fibre-optic cabling needed for the network.

Individual homeowners, however, will have the option of having the cables in their homes - cables which will enable access to the new billion-dollar broadband network, which promises cheaper, faster broadband access and other services now unavailable with SingTel and StarHub.

As many as nine in 10 condominiums had previously refused, largely on aesthetic grounds.

OpenNet, the firm appointed by the Government for the work, has been contracted to lay the cables via boxy plastic piping on wall surfaces.

But many condominiums want the cables hidden within walls or false ceilings, which costs more, and neither they nor OpenNet is willing to pay the difference.

The standoff threatened to cut off the 20 per cent of Singapore's one million households living in condominiums from the network.

At a media briefing yesterday, technology sector regulator the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) said condominiums will have to allow OpenNet to install the cables, and that condominium management committees which want the cables concealed will have to foot the bill. Condominiums that fail to comply with the requirement - part of a building owner's obligations under the Telecoms Act - can be fined up to $1,000 a day.

The IDA has issued OpenNet an official letter clarifying building owners' obligations.

OpenNet, which has approached about half the 2,000 condominiums here so far, has since re-started talks with those who closed their doors. Of these, six in 10 have now agreed to let OpenNet go ahead. The Straits Times understands that it is in negotiations with the rest.

The Government's move was good news to condo resident and business undergraduate Janice Huang, 23. 'It's silly to choose form over function, considering how we depend so heavily on the Internet for everything from research to entertainment.'

But some parties remain opposed to a blanket requirement. Chief executive of the Association of Management Corporations in Singapore Francis Zhan said the association supports the national broadband initiative, but he called for condos to be given the choice of rejecting the cabling.

'Put yourself in our shoes. You are a new condo where everything is spick and span and then suddenly you run trunking all over the wall. It will affect the development's market value.'

chuahh@sph.com.sg