THE Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) will delay the unveiling of the winning bid for Singapore's new broadband network as it kick-starts a year-long process to narrow down the field of contenders. However, its goal of providing the nation with ubiquitous ultra high-speed connectivity by 2012 remains unchanged.

When plans to build a new broadband highway were announced last year, IDA had initially said it was planning to issue a 'request for proposal' (RFP) by the end of 2006. The aim then was to appoint the successful bidder for the project early this year.

However, the regulator has since refined its plans and introduced another step in short-listing suitable candidates for the mammoth task of building and operating Singapore's next-generation broadband infrastructure. According to IDA's revised estimates, the finalised RFP will only be out in July, with the winning bid to be disclosed by the end of 2007.

The new network is one of the most significant developments in the local IT landscape to date and is widely speculated to be based on fibre optics technology. It will provide residences, schools and commercial buildings with Internet access speeds of 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) and beyond when fully completed.

This is ten times the bandwidth offered by the fastest broadband package available today, which stands at 100 Mbps (megabits per second).

Under IDA's current schedule, potential bidders will undergo a series of briefings and networking sessions to give them more insights into areas such as network requirements and selection criteria. IDA had already solicited preliminary feedback from industry players over the March-June 2006 period on how to tackle this task.

The ongoing IPCD phase - dubbed Invitation to Participate in the pre-qualification exercise and Competitive Dialogue - started in mid-December 2006. Companies that are vying for the tender must take part before they can move on to subsequent stages, although exceptions can be made if they had applied for a waiver before Jan 15.

'One of the key objectives of the IPCD is to outline to the industry the project's components and proposed structure, and explain IDA's expectations in seeking their participation. Through the IPCD, IDA will short-list pre-qualified bidders to participate in the competitive dialogue and move into Phase 2 of the RFP, expected in July this year,' an IDA spokesperson told BizIT.

Companies can choose to compete on their own or form alliances with others and put forth proposals as a consortium. The application for IPCD will close this Friday, after which IDA will whittle down the crowd into a handful of pre-qualified bidders. A draft RFP will be issued to short-listed companies in March and proposals must be submitted a month later.

IDA will then study the submissions and possibly shorten the list even further. Dialogue sessions will be held with selected firms and the final RFP will issued to them in July. In Phase 2, companies will have around three months to cobble together detailed plans before the October tender submission deadline. Following a month-long evaluation, the winning bidder is set to be announced at the end of this year.

Strong interest from local, overseas players

Expectedly, Singapore's ambitious broadband vision has drawn keen interest from a mix of local companies and multinationals. A multi-million-dollar infrastructural contract to roll out the new network is on the cards, coupled with the potential for recurring revenue from leasing the fattened pipes to Internet service providers.

StarHub had invested $600 million in its current broadband infrastructure and industry watchers expect Singapore's next cyber highway to cost at least as much.

However, the IPCD process did throw up a few surprises in terms of interested parties. On an IDA-led networking session held last December, 30 companies had presented their credentials.

These included local telecommunications bigwig SingTel, networking equipment giants like Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems and Siemens, as well as foreign operators like Hong Kong Broadband, Japan's NTT West and Deutsche Telekom.

In addition, financial institutions like Citigroup and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation also took part - a sign that they could be looking at the project as a viable long-term investment. If so, they are likely to join hands with technology companies in a joint bid structured on some form of revenue-sharing arrangement.

Besides the networking event, IDA also held a briefing for these companies in December and a subsequent clarification session last month. During these meetings, the regulator shared the key requirements for the nation's new broadband links.

Scalability, security and network redundancy were among the criteria IDA has specified. Beyond these, bidders must also allow open access - that is, allow service providers to tap onto the network easily, as well as ensure minimal disruptions to the public during deployment.

Singapore's new broadband infrastructure is deemed as the technology bedrock underpinning Singapore's 10-year IT masterplan or iN2015, and is expected to be fully operational by 2012.

This article first appeared in BT on February 05, 2007