Singapore Telecommunications Ltd's (ASX:SGT) chief executive says economic intervention from governments is necessary to fund a national broadband network.
Ms Chua says a strong business case does not exist when fibre rollouts are at an early stage of development – it is not commercially viable.
Ms Chua added that it was difficult for people to fully appreciate the advances that would come with the speed and bandwidth of a fibre network, making the proposition unpopular as a privately funded project.
For the financial year ended March 31, 2011, SingTel posted a profit of $2.9 billion.
