Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent has been selected to manage and provide infrastructure “assets” to the country’s planned broadband network national next generation (NBN).
The two producers on Tuesday signed an agreement with the operator designated NBN (OPCO), Core Connect.
StarHub’s subsidiary won the tender to operate the active infrastructure of the NBN, providing broadband connectivity to wholesale operators such as intermediate service providers retail (PSR), which then package and resell broadband services consumers.
This “active” sits atop a layer of fiber-based infrastructure, which is being established by a separate network company (NetCos) OpenNet, a joint venture between four companies including Singapore Telecommunications.
Earlier this month, Alcatel-Lucent also won the OSS / BSS provider role with OpenNet.
Speaking at a conference here, Core Connect CEO David Storrie said the agreement Alcatel-Lucent had OpenNet not affect their victory with the OpCo. He said the company “open access” network design was one factor, and added that Alcatel-Lucent won by a “considerable” margin.
Storrie said Alcatel-Lucent initially submitted bids in tenders calling for Connect Core OSS / BSS and network infrastructure providers, but was “found to be stronger in OSS / BSS.” Alcatel-Lucent later partnered with Huawei to stand as a joint bid, he added.
While Core Connect is the “official” NBN OpCo is unlikely to be the only OpCo he said. “I do expect at least another” he said.
“At least a dozen PSR is interested” in the signature to be another NBN OpCo for Singapore, Storrie said, noting the number of RSPs that had signed confidentiality agreements (non-disclosure agreements) to see the Interconnection Offer (ICO) in wholesale prices, as listed by the governor of ICT in the country, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).
Daniel Tang, chief technology officer of Huawei network line of products, told ZDNet Asia that the contract, Alcatel-Lucent Huawei with Nucleus Connect covers seven years, during which the Chinese network equipment supplier to provide and operate the systems required and the transfer of power to Core Connect staff.
Core Connect will also create two “super headquarters” to house the plant equipment for telecommunications, Tang said in a telephone interview.
Storrie said the size of central office facilities will be determined by the number of service providers that require co-location.