MIO TV INFRASTRUCTURE IN RESIDENTIAL ESTATES

MIO TV INFRASTRUCTURE IN RESIDENTIAL ESTATES: 4.

Er Lee Bee Wah asked the Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts with the wide public interest in World Cup 2010 (a) whether the Government will provide the infrastructure for mio TV to be available in all residential districts in Singapore; and (b) which are the districts where mio TV is currently available.

The Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts (RAdm [NS] Lui Tuck Yew): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Member for the question on consumer access to SingNet's mio TV service in residential districts in view of the impending World Cup.

My understanding is that SingTel and StarHub have jointly bid for rights to World Cup 2010. If they succeed in their joint bid, the matches would therefore be available to subscribers of both platforms. In addition, some matches would be available on free-to-air television. The combined reach of StarHub, SingTel and MediaCorp's networks should ensure that all viewers will be able to watch World Cup 2010.

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SingNet's mio TV is a commercial subscription pay TV service and it remains for SingNet to determine how best to deploy its infrastructure to deliver the service to its subscribers. I understand that mio TV is currently available to about 97% of the residential households in Singapore.

The remaining 3% of residential households unable to receive mio TV includes pockets of residences within the mio TV coverage area. This is because these residences are situated far from SingTel's telephone exchanges where special broadband equipment is installed to enable the delivery of mio TV service.

To deliver mio TV to these households, SingNet therefore has to find alternative locations and obtain the necessary permits to install the broadband equipment, and this usually takes some time. I understand from the Media Development Authority that SingNet is working on progressively improving its coverage over the coming months.

SingNet had publicly committed to providing coverage of mio TV island-wide by the end of July 2010, and I certainly hope to see them meet this commitment.

Er Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio): Thank you, Sir. I would like to ask the Minister – currently what I understand is that different operators have their own infrastructure. Would it be more effective for a common infrastructure like what it is being done in Hong Kong, instead of each laying their own cables?

And the next question: Is the Ministry still trying to help to realise the dream of many Singaporeans, ie, to watch the World Cup in their comfort of their home?

RAdm [NS] Lui Tuck Yew: There are two sets of infrastructure that we should talk about. One is the pipeline; and the

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other is the set-top box. On the set-top box, we are working towards having a common feature set-top box but this will take time to materialise, and at this stage we are really talking to the different players about arriving at common technical standards. And this common feature set-top box is not expected to be in place for at least another two years.

On the pipeline, the common infrastructure that we hope everybody will migrate to eventually is, of course, the nationwide broadband network that will be in place by about 2013. Good progress has been made in this area but, in the meantime, StarHub delivers its services through cable and SingTel through its telephone network and, therefore, they are riding on different backbones to deliver their services.

On World Cup 2010, I fully understand the anxiety of all soccer fans. I know that time is running very short. Even if StarHub and SingTel were to be successful in the bid, they would need time to arrange for the sponsors, the advertisers as well as to put up subscription packages. So, we are, I guess, into injury time and the referee is putting whistle to mouth; but the last I have is that I have received no final word as to the outcome of the negotiations that are still being carried out between SingTel, StarHub and the Football Media Services (FMS), which is the local agent for the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), on the World Cup.