Wednesday August 5, 2009

High-speed broadband soon

KUANTAN: The country’s first open access fiber-to-the-home high-speed broadband facility is set to take off here over the next six months, involving 2,000 homes and offices in the initial roll-out.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who launched the initiative yesterday, said the Government would hold discussions with Telekom Malaysia on the matter.

The state would be involved in the construction of the fiber-to-the-home broadband facility.

“I hope there will be more flexibility in terms of implementation so that more industry players like the Pahang government can contribute in the development of ICT in the country.

“I have taken note of Pahang’s keen interest in the high-speed broadband project,” he said after opening the MSC Malaysia Pahang initiative at Putra Square here yesterday.

Jalur Lebar Nasional Sdn Bhd (Jalenas) is expected to invest up to RM10bil in infrastructure and plans to connect up to 2.5 million city homes and offices, making it the world’s largest open access deployment based on a single network operator.

Under the first phase, 30,000 home and offices will be connected with services in Kuantan prior to a nationwide city network roll-out.

Najib said the Government had targeted to achieve 50% of high- speed broadband penetration by 2010.

“Our challenge now is to meet the target in slightly more than a year from the present rate of 26%,” he said.

He said based on a study by the Economic Planning Unit, the percentage will help to increase the country’s GDP by 1.2%.

He added the target was one of the Government’s key performance indicators and that “failure is not an option.”

Najib said the MSC initiative, set up in 1996, was very pertinent in which 2,300 ICT-related companies were given MSC status nationwide to date.

“We must start to make adjustments to enhance the culture of ICT as a way of life or be left behind,” he said, adding that communications via new technology had just begun.

Citing himself as an example, Najib said his day would not be complete without viewing his e-mails concerning himself and Malaysia on the whole.

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