IDA makes early review of interconnect offer as operational issues arise in NBN's roll-out
After a swarm of complaints about the state of fibre connectivity from home owners and industry players, the government is stepping in to provide OpenNet a nudge in the right direction.
The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) said operational issues have arisen in the roll-out of the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NBN) such as delays in getting buildings wired up, as well as gaps in service offerings.
As a result, the IDA is making an early review of the interconnect offer (ICO) of the government-appointed fibre network operator OpenNet.
The ICO is a commercial agreement between OpenNet and its downstream licensed service providers.
It stipulates different price points that OpenNet charges these service providers for using the fibre network, and also contains provisions to deal with missed obligations.
The ICO is due to be reviewed in April 2013 but the IDA started reviewing OpenNet's services in November, after complaints came in about the fibre roll-out.
The spotlight is on OpenNet because it is the sole party laying out the physical infrastructure of the NBN. All other service operators such as government-appointed operating company Nucleus Connect and further downstream retail service providers, therefore, rely on OpenNet to get fibre to buildings in the first place.
Some of the complaints touched on inflexible service offerings from OpenNet.
