NEWS: ICT boost for the underserved

KUALA LUMPUR: Rural areas in Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang can look forward to having better telecommunications facilities soon — an initiative that will be funded by the Universal Service Provision (USP) fund.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) said it will focus on the provision of telecommunications facilities and Internet access to the areas, under the national High-Speed Broadband (HSBB) project, during the next 16 months.

Local telcos are required to contribute a set portion or their profits annually to the USP fund, which is then used for rural ICT (information and communications technology) projects and to develop other underserved areas. There is reportedly RM3bil in the kitty now.

“There are still many areas without basic telephony and Internet facilities,” said Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi, SKMM acting chairman, so SKMM has earmarked RM2.4bil to improve these areas nationwide under the HSBB project.

Some of these areas are in Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang, which have been classified as Zone 3 of the HSBB project. The zone contains areas recognised as having low economic activities.

Mohamed Sharil was speaking at a press conference after a ceremony to mark the commencement of HSBB project infrastructure works in the capital last week.

Speed boost

The HSBB project — launched last year under a public/private partnership between the Government and telco giant Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) — is aimed at improving the nation’s broadband Internet quality to offer speeds of up to 10Mbps (megabits per second).

Currently, Internet users can only connect at speeds of up to 4Mbps, although business users have the option of a higher 1Gbps (gigabits per second) connection under the TM Direct service.

“In rural areas, Internet connectivity is offered in community centres and there will be more of this in the next 16 months,” Sharil said.

Besides providing telephony facilities and Internet access, SKMM will also be involved in educating the rural population on the benefits of ICT.

Minister of Information, Communications, Culture and Arts Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, who officiated at the ceremony, said a team of officials from TM, SKMM and the ministry would be sent to Zone 3 areas to educate rural folk on ICT use.

“We don’t want the people to have the impression that the HSBB project is focused only on urbanites and areas with high economic activities,” he said.

Making it better

Between 2002 and 2006, Sharil said, the USP fund had been used to improve cellphone service coverage in rural areas. He declined to quantify the total amount disbursed.

SKMM disburses the monies in the fund after first identifying the areas with telecommunications facilities that are below the national average penetration rate.

Sharil explained that if a particular location is about 20% below the national average, it would then qualify as an area to be developed using the USP fund.

After the locations are noted, tenders would be called for and bids would be made by service providers wanting to provide the communications infrastructure for those areas.