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KUCHING: The Sarawak government will establish its own telecommunications company to improve Internet connectivity in rural areas.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang, Johari Tun Openg (photo), said that this was decided by the state cabinet last week, as the existing telecommunications companies (telecommunications companies) were not willing to extend their services to the areas rural areas where the customer base was limited.
All major telecommunications companies, such as Celecom Axiata, Maxis and Digi, have operations in the main cities of Sarawak.
Johari said the proposed state telecommunications company, which was expected to be established in a year or two, would help address poor internet penetration in rural areas, as the state could not depend on existing telecommunications companies to do so. .
According to the 2015 census, Sarawak has a population of 2.62 million people and about 46% live in rural areas.
“We have the telecommunications towers but we also need people to equip them with Internet services to provide connection.
“We cannot depend on the existing telecommunications companies, as they are not willing to go to rural areas where the customer base is limited.
“The only way out of this is for us to have our own telecommunications company and we will subsidize it so that the Internet rate charged to users is low,” he added in an interview with state-run TV Sarawak (TVS) in Sarawak. Budget 2021 last week.
TVS launched last month.
Johari said that about two years ago, the state government initiated a plan to improve Internet connectivity in Sarawak and was confident that over time, Internet access would become more widespread.
According to him, 300 telecommunication towers have been built across the state, particularly in remote Sarawak, and are in various stages of implementation. The construction of another 300 towers of this type would begin in 2021.
He said that as the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) promised to build 646 such towers in Sarawak, the state would have more than 1,200 towers by 2023.
Introducing the 2021 State Budget, Johari, who is also the state Minister of Finance and Minister of Economic Planning, said that the state government was committed to spearheading the digital economy initiative to optimize the potential of digital technology and digitization to give a leap to Sarawak towards a high income economy. by 2023.
In 2021, Sarawak approved RM540mil to fund the various digital initiatives, including the improvement of digital connectivity in rural areas, providing free Internet connection via the SarawakNet infrastructure VSAT technology, with a capacity of 20 Mbps and 30 Mbps bandwidth per site through a RM16 funding allocation. .5 thousand.
Johari also recently approved RM150mil to expand WiFi coverage to all zoned locations in Sarawak.
Reiterating that the Internet is a crucial infrastructure and no longer a luxury, he said that it is part of the development components of the state, in addition to building roads and bridges to link rural areas with cities, as well as the supply of water and electricity. to the entire population.
“My goal is for these components to be resolved by 2023.
“What remains for us now is to develop our human talent,” he added.
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