NEWS: Giants help drive broadband to rural folk

PETALING JAYA: Chipmaker Intel Malaysia and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) have joined hands to push for higher broadband Internet adoption among local suburban and rural communities.

SKMM — which regulates the converging communications and multimedia industries in the country — and Intel are promoting the setup and use of community broadband centres (CBCs) in those areas.

As part of the initiative, both parties organised a blogging competition themed “Mengapa saya inginkan broadband? (Why do I need broadband?) at four CBCs in the Besut district in Terengganu on the east coast of the peninsula.

The competition, which ended last month, attracted a large number of first-time participants to the CBCs where they had to use the computers there to create blogs. Intel said more than 350 blogs were created during the three-week long contest.

Mohd Shafie Harun, director at SKMM’s eastern regional office, said activities such as the blogging competition are useful to create more awareness of PCs and broadband, as well as to encourage students to use the Internet facilities at the CBCs.

He said that aside from blogs, the Internet facilities at the CBCs can be a gateway to online-based services such as Internet banking and e-government facilities.

“These services will eventually encourage rural folk to buy their own computers and access the Internet from their homes,” Mohd Shafie said.

Spreading the word

Intel and SKMM hope to extend the blogging competition to other CBCs across the country.

“We are committed to collaborating with the Government and the private sector to bridge the digital divide and meet the country’s goal of achieving a 50% broadband penetration by 2010,” said Nazli Awang Had, business development manager at Intel Malaysia.

The digital divide refers to the gap between the technology haves and have-nots.

After the competition in Besut, the SKMM organised a CBC Open Day which included a series of free talks on subjects that ranged from cybersecurity to positive use of the Internet.

Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman, the Terengganu state executive councillor for science technology, education and human resources, officiated at the event.