SINGAPORE, Oct 27 — NetLink Trust (NLT), the company in charge of building the Republic’s high-speed fibre broadband network, has been slapped with a S$500,000 (RM1,495,249) fine – the biggest in three years – for falling short of service-activation standards in homes and businesses.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced the latest fine today.

Last year, NetLink Trust, formerly known as OpenNet, had received a S$450,000 fine for similar reasons by the now-defunct Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. 

The bulk of the latest fine — S$300,000 — was slapped on NetLink Trust for breaching non-residential Quality of Service (QoS) standards from January to December last year.

Under IMDA guidelines, the company has to install fibre broadband services for at least four in five business orders within four weeks of inking the deal. However, NetLink Trust failed to meet the minimum monthly standard in 11 out of 12 months last year — with the worst performance shown in April, where they filled only 29.28 per cent of business orders in time. 

The IMDA also requires all business orders to be completed within eight weeks; again, NetLink Trust fell short. In March last year, only 45.06 per cent of orders were fulfilled in the time frame (the worst performing month).

The remaining S$200,000 financial penalty was slapped on the company was failing to meet residential service orders in time. 

During the assessment period between January last year to June this year, the company fulfilled 87.15 per cent to 93.19 per cent of residential service orders within three business days — below the IMDA required standard of 98 per cent.

NetLink Trust is also obligated to connect all residential orders within seven business days. However, it fulfilled less than 95 per cent.

The IMDA said it took into consideration NetLink Trust’s previous failures to meet service standards, and operational improvements made by the company when determining the latest financial penalties. 

The government agency IMDA also noted that a number of delayed residential service orders were churn orders or second fibre orders, which necessitated the use of a second optical fibre, or handing over of fibre between service providers.

“IMDA expects NLT to ensure that there is sufficient spare fibre in residential buildings to cater to all residential orders, and continue to improve its processes and ensure it fully meets all QoS standards. 

“IMDA will continue to monitor NLT’s performance closely,” a statement said today.

Acknowledging the IMDA’s decision, NetLink Trust’s CEO Tong Yew Heng said his company was “fully committed” to improving its operations and performance.

“We are investing about S$150 million to install more fibre across the country and to upgrade the operational and business IT systems in order to deliver a robust fibre broadband network,” Tong said.

In its earlier brushes with the IDA, NetLink Trust was penalised S$200,000 in November 2013 for breaching residential QoS standards between April and June that year.

This was followed by a S$240,000 fine — issued in May 2014 — for installation delays affecting business users between April and September 2013.

In December 2014, the company was fined S$50,000 for failing to meet residential QoS standards in the first half of the year. — TODAY