National broadband deployment strategies in Brunei

The problem

Brunei Darussalam has witnessed tremendous growth in the number of broadband users over the last few years, and broadband has become increasingly important in all aspects of its citizens’ economic and social lives. In light of this rapid development, and in keeping with the government’s focus on transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy, the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) commissioned Analysys Mason to develop a strategic plan to address and identify the core objectives for broadband deployment in Brunei Darussalam.

The solution

The first step was to work closely with AITI and other government departments to identify the key policy objectives for the broadband market (and wider ICT market) in Brunei Darussalam. In parallel, we also reviewed international approaches to broadband policy and national strategy as well as the existing market and regulatory framework in Brunei Darussalam, including interviews with a wide range of key stakeholders in the ICT industry. This first stage provided a solid foundation for the remainder of the project, ensuring that our final recommendations were firmly based on the situation in Brunei Darussalam.

Based on our understanding of the local context and the development of broadband in international markets, the next step was to forecast the evolution of the broadband market over the next five years, including an assessment of the extent to which fibre networks would be rolled out on a commercial basis. This forecast was used to identify quantified targets for the sector and the funding gap for the commercial roll-out of fibre at different price points and with different coverage levels.

Building on this, we identified supply-and demand-side barriers to further development of the sector and reviewed approaches and assessed the costs and benefits of public investment in next-generation broadband infrastructure

The result

We developed a range of plans and recommendations to address both the supply of and demand for broadband services to realise the AITI's policies and strategies for the broadband sector.

We also recommended the preferred approach for Brunei Darussalam for public investment in next-generation infrastructure and prepared an implementation plan to put these recommendations into action.

Finally, we presented our findings and recommendations to the Minister of Communications and AITI’s senior management team.

The team

The Analysys Mason team drew on experts from multiple offices to provide our client with a truly global outlook and draw on our in-depth knowledge of broadband services, technologies, policies and market trends.

The team working on the project had extensive experience advising regulators and policy makers on next-generation access, as well as work for operators on the same subject matter, giving us a detailed understanding of both the commercial and public policy challenges inherent in the development of the broadband market.

The project director heads our practice specialising in next-generation networks and been involved in the development and implementation of national and regional broadband strategies worldwide.

The overall project manager is based in our Singapore office and has managed more than 50 projects across the whole of the telecoms and media sectors and has spent the last four years working in the Asia-Pacific region.