Air your broadband frustrations in S'pore
Patrick
By Irene Tham
Friday, June 23 2000
SINGAPORE--It's time to air your broadband frustrations... and this time
round, it could make a difference.
The Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is inviting
comments from the public on two new Quality of Service (QoS) indicators for
the compliance of broadband service providers using Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line (ADSL) and cable modem access.
The new indicators proposed are network latency and bandwidth utilization.
Network latency is the time taken for a data packet to get from one
designated point to another on the Internet--in other words, the speed of
end-to-end connection experienced by the end user. On the other hand,
bandwidth utilization refers to the percentage of a provider's network being
used.
The two additional indicators were suggested to address recent public
complaints about Singapore Cable Vision Ltd and Singtel Magix's slow network
response time, IDA revealed in its consultation paper.
"More subscribers want fast connections to the Internet," IDA said in the
paper. The current QoS guidelines--which specify the minimum network
availablity (99.5 percent), repair time and service activation time--could
only address the ease of connectivity and not the response time.
According to the consultation paper, IDA is proposing a fine of S$5,000
should any broadband service provider breach the minimum network latency
standard. IDA also requires service providers to immediately purchase
additional capacity should the bandwidth utilization level exceed 90 percent
at any time.
Meanwhile, failure to meet the current QoS guidelines will also result in
fines of between S$1,000 and S$5,000 per month of non-compliance.
Broadband service providers, users and interested parties may submit their
comments either by hard copy or email. The consulation paper can be
downloaded from the regulator's Web site under the Policy & Regulation
section. All comments must reach the regulator by August 31, 2000 noon.