EXPLORATION of the digital economy will be a new dimension in the development in Sarawak which would be a source of economic growth for more opportunities to the communities, especially the rural community and youth to participate in programmes such as e-commerce, e-health and e-learning.
In view of this, Rural Electricity and Water Supply Minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom said various planning is in place for communication infrastructure to be upgraded and new communication towers to be implemented.
“Among the initiatives are the addition of 240 new communication towers, upgrading of 395 existing towers to provide 3G and 4G services, and continuing efforts to connect over 600 towers with optical fibres for better broadband coverage and services,” he told the august House when winding up his ministerial speech at the 18th State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting yesterday.
He also referred to Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg’s speech during the International Conference on Digital Infrastructure and Economic Sarawak (IDECS) last month where he announced that a total of 5,000 communication towers will be constructed in Sarawak to strengthen the communication infrastructure network and develop the digital economy era in the next five to 10 years.
“The state government is also committed to initiate the development of the digital economy through RM1 billion in investments to build communications infrastructure and to ensure the increase of Internet penetration and speed,” he said, adding that this included the setting up of the RM30 million Digital Village, aimed at producing young technopreneurs.
On a related matter, Dr Rundi said the government through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has invested over RM2 billion of Universal Service Provision (USP) fund for infrastructure development in Sarawak from 2008 until today.
Rural Electricity and Water Supply Minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom said these investments are visible with the construction of 412 communication towers in rural areas, 1,237km of fibre optic cable connections (BBGP), and 124 1Malaysia Internet Centres (PI1M) which have been operating statewide.
“Another project that is being implemented through this fund is the construction of submarine fibre-optic cables that connect Peninsular Malaysia to Sabah and Sarawak through the Cable System Rakyat 1Malaysia (SKR1M) initiative.
“The SKR1M has a total of 1,229km connection length which will provide internet speeds up to 4Tbps (terabytes per second) and is capable of being upgraded to a capacity up to 12Tbps, depending on consumer demand.”
Apart from that, he said the government is also currently expanding the high-speed broadband coverage up to 100Mbps (megabits per second) in urban areas through the High Speed Broadband (HSBB) initiative.
“The government is also upgrading the access speed of broadband services up to 20Mbps in the suburban and rural areas through the Sub-Urban Broadband (SUBB) initiatives.”
In addition, he noted that 825 communication towers build by Sacofa Sdn Bhd under commercial initiatives also contributed to the increase in 2G and 3G coverage throughout the state.
“This is the government’s continuous efforts to ensure the increase of broadband penetration rate (households) in Sarawak. To date, records have shown the increase of broadband penetration rate from 13.6 per cent in 2008 to 51.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2016.
“Meanwhile, the coverage of 3G services recorded in populated areas has also increased by 44.1 per cent since 2008 to 72.1 per cent in Feb 2017,” he said.