The World Teleport Association (WTA) has announced that Singtel (Singapore Telecommunications Limited) has achieved full Tier certification of their BukitTimah (Tier 4) and Seletar (Tier 4) teleports under WTA’s Teleport Certification Program.
These facilities become the first teleports in southeast Asia to achieve full WTA certification and bring the number of fully-certified teleports around the world to 23 in number.
SingTel's BukitTimah teleport.
Since the program's introduction at IBC 2015, the Certification program has quickly grown in popularity. Starting with one certified facility in 2015, the program has added more than 40 in three years, and currently has 10 teleports engaged in the quality evaluation process. Certifications have been issued to teleports operated by Eutelsat, du, COMSAT, Signalhorn, Optus, Globecomm, Horizon, Media Broadcast, Elara Comunicaciones, GlobalSat, Talia, Telenor, Vivacom, Cyta, Batelco, Singtel, CETel, Etisalat, Hawaii Pacific Teleport, Intelsat, Speedcast, Telstra, AXESAT, Telespazio and Arqiva. The industry has quickly adopted the transparent, independently verified standards as a means for teleports to differentiate themselves and for customers to choose the price-performance level suitable for their applications.
Full Certification under the WTA program is the result of a comprehensive data-collection and inspection process. A teleport operator completes a +170-item questionnaire and submits it to WTA. The Association analyzes the data based on standards established by its Certification Committee and issues the Provisional Certification based on the self-reported information. The teleport then has six months to achieve Full Certification. To achieve Full Certification under WTA’s program, an auditor is dispatched to visit the teleport, provide independent validation of the data submitted in the questionnaire, and identify additional factors that may positively or negatively affect the score. Full Certification is issued at a Tier number from 1 through 4, of which 4 represents the highest degree of excellence, and remains in effect for three years.
WTA’s Teleport Certification Program serves both teleport operators and their customers by creating an objective, transparent, and internationally accepted method for teleport operators to document the quality of their operations for customers and strategic partners. It also provides a means for customers to select teleport vendors delivering the price-performance level that is appropriate for their applications. Click here for a list of certified teleports.
Executive Comments
Mr. Ng Kheng Ghee, Head of Satellite at Singtel, said that the firm is delighted to be awarded the coveted Tier-4 WTA certification for the firm's teleports in Bukit Timah and Seletar. This achievement underscores Singtel's commitment to providing customers the highest quality of security, infrastructure and operational standards to meet their communications needs. The certification will spur the company to constantly deliver the best managed satellite solutions to customers across Asia, Middle East and Africa, offering them reliable satellite connectivity and secured managed ICT solutions.
The Executive Director of the WTA, Robert Bell, added that Singtel is a regional leader in high-value transmission services for broadcast, maritime and other industries where Singapore plays a leadership role. As the number of certified teleports grows, the WTA is seeing satellite operators and end-customers including certification as a question in their RFPs, which increases the value of the program to teleport operators.