KUCHING: Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) high-speed broadband service UniFi is set to expand its coverage here by the third quarter of next year – almost a year ahead of schedule.
WIDER COVERAGE: Omar says TM is in the process of improving the broadband infrastructure in the state, focusing on two main areas namely Kuching and Miri.
The state’s TM general manager Omar Zaki Mustafa revealed that originally, the plan was to bring the wireless service here by 2012, together with Sabah.
“But based on the tremendous response from users in the Klang Valley, as well as very encouraging enquiries we received here, we are ramping up our efforts to bring forward the ‘deadline’.
“Towards this end, we are in the process of improving the infrastructure in the state, focusing on two main areas namely Kuching and Miri,” he told The Borneo Post when met at the 1Malaysia Broadband Carnival 2010 at Padang Merdeka here yesterday.
UniFi was launched in March this year, with initial roll-outs in Shah Alam, Subang Jaya, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Bangsar. By the end of September, its service roll-out had reached 600,000 premises passed nationwide, according to an earlier statement made by TM’s executive vice-president Shanti Jusnita Johari.
Outside these roll-out areas, the broadband also covered the most southern point of Klang Valley namely Bangi, Port Klang in the west, Selayang in the north and Tasik Ampang in the east.
Omar added, “TM is in all out in improving its UniFi service speed up to 50-100 megabytes per second. Definitely, this will be done in stages.”
On investment for UniFi, Omar disclosed that under its public private partnership initiative, total cost would amount to RM12.8 billion of contribution from TM, and RM2.8 billion from the government.
“It is also within this investment that allocations are set aside towards forwarding the timing for UniFi to come to Sarawak.”
As of date, Streamyx had remained the broadband option for subscribers in the state, with total subscription approaching to 100,000 users. Nevertheless, Omar also highlighted a number of plans slated to improve the service here.
“The packages for Streamyx include that with speed of up to four megabytes per second. Based from feedbacks, most of our customers now are aware that speed is important when it comes to broadband. This is clearly demonstrated by our data that shows more than 50 per cent of our customers are using capacity of one megabytes per second and above.
“We always strive towards expanding our capacity. Whenever the capacity reaches 70 to 80 per cent, we will continue to upgrade it to cater for additional needs of users. This is in line with our currently strong growth rate where voice and normal lines have declined a bit, but broadband services have increased tremendously. Our average growth rate for the past three years has been about 20 per cent,” he explained.
Notably, Omar stressed that in order to remain competitive, TM had invested substantially to improve its broadband’s speed and capacity.
“We are establishing our strength not only on fixed services, but also on mobility. For this year alone in Sarawak, TM has put in capex (capital expenditure) of RM110-RM120 million.
“On top of that, we are intensifying our efforts to widen our Wi-Fi and ‘Hotzones’ coverage here. Hopefully, by the end of this year and into next year, almost all of the commercial areas nationwide will be hooked up completely with these wireless services,” enthused Omar.