Advice to IDA on Price List Guidelines for Fibre

In November 2015, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (“IDA”) consulted CCS on the competition impact of publishing a list of prices of commonly used items/materials for the installation of in-building infrastructure (“price list”). The price list was prepared by IDA based on historical pricing and served as a guide for Building Owners (“BOs”) and Management Corporations to estimate the likely costs of works to be carried out under the Fibre Ready Scheme (“FRS”). The FRS is an IDA programme to help owners of non-residential buildings enhance their buildings’ telecommunication infrastructure, and thereby speed up fibre broadband provisioning to all the occupants in the buildings. CCS advised that, unless certain safeguards are put in place, the publication of the price list may give rise to competition concerns, including a risk that the price list will create a focal point for pricing of such installation and may give rise to price convergence amongst  contracting companies (“contractors”) providing such services. CCS worked closely with IDA in order to address these concerns. IDA implemented a number of safeguards proposed by the CCS, including ensuring that the price list is based on historical, actual transacted pricing collected confidentially and individually from BOs. The price list also reports the 50th and 90th percentile unit rate to address concerns about price convergence around the published rates in the price list.