Malaysia Wants To Improve Broadband Quality Especially In Rural Areas

By Minggu Simon Lhasa

BANGKOK, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia not only wants to achieve 100 per cent penetration rate for Internet services, but also targets to improve the quality of the services, especially in rural areas.

"If possible, the country wants to achieve 100 per cent broadband penetration rate compared with 67 per cent currently, and for the next level, quality will be the main agenda in its broadband development for all," said Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

He said this in an interview with Bernama on the sidelines of the ITU Telecom World 2013 which opens here Tuesday.

In the next few years, the government has targeted Internet speed for residential in rural areas to be at 4-10 megabit per second (Mbps), he said, which in his view was still not satisfactory.

The suitable speed in the future, he said, is at 40-50 Mbps for residential but for schools and others, the speed needed to be faster.

He said to achieve the agenda, the present model is via cooperation between the government and the private sector, and secondly, was to find ways to ensure that the private sector don't think of building infrastructure only in places where they think is profitable.

The other model was to find new technology so that it is cost-effective, he said.

He said the thinking should also change in that broadband is not a luxury infrastructure but a necessity.

He said Malaysia's efforts in expanding the use of broadband had become an example among the community at the international level.

For instance, Malaysia has utilised the Universal Service Provider (USP) fund to build telecommunication towers in rural areas which received less attention from telecommunication companies as they are seen as less profitable, he said.