Sacofa to enhance Sarawak’s broadband quality with new partnership

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Suhaimi (second left) exchanges MoU documents with Zaid, while DST Group General Counsel assistant general manager Radin Sufri Radin Basiuni (left), and Sacofa acting senior manager of legal Abang Bahrin Mu’Izzaddin Abang Mustapha look on.

KUCHING: Sacofa Sdn Bhd (Sacofa) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Datastream Technology Sdn Bhd (DST), a telecommunications company in Brunei thought SDT’s wholly owned subsidiary DST International (Brunei) Sdn Bhd, to form a strategic collaboration to bring international broadband quality to Sarawak.

This new partnerhip is expected to further boost the implementation of high-quality broadband services in the state, in line with Sacofa’s vision of ‘connecting Sarawak to the future,’ which is consistent with the State Government’s vision for Sarawak, where all sections of society can realise the benefits of connectivity, no matter how remote they are, through wired or wireless means.

In a statement in conjunction with the MoU ceremony which was held at the 13th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF 2017) yesterday, Sacofa’s managing director Mohamed Zaid Zaini remarked, “Sacofa has always been focused on delivering on the state government’s agenda.

“We are more dedicated than ever in improving Sarawak’s telecommunications infrastructure to ensure we meet the requirements to deliver on the backbone of the digital economy as envisioned by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.”

He added, the new partnership will be highly beneficial to broadband consumers in Sarawak as the synergy of activities will leverage on DST’s great partnership with MyRepublic, a highly reputable industry player in the broadband services arena.

“DST, the largest telco in Brunei, has  a strong track record of providing consistent and reliable quality services in broadband and mobile services,” he said

He further commented, “With this partnership, we look forward to unlocking value in bringing world-class broadband at affordable rates to Sarawak.”

Meanwhile, DST chief executive officer Suhaimi Hussain stated, “We are excited to build on our existing strong relationship with Sacofa to catalyse further the connectivity potential in Sarawak to support Sarawak’s Digital Economy initiatives.

“DST’s in-depth telecommunications experience together with our association with MyRepublic and Sacofa’s experience in providing ICT infrastructure is a good alliance in realising high-quality and affordable broadband services in Sarawak.

“We look forward to working together in developing the next stage of this exciting prospects, which is in line with DST’s expansion plan.”

MyRepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues added, “MyRepublic is pleased to work with DST to implement our thin operator cloud platform in Sarawak. Our proprietary platform already supports our operations in four countries and has powered our rapid expansion across the region. We are proud that our platform will now be extended to East Malaysia, enabling DST to build a next-gen telco and realise Sacofa’s vision for Sarawak.”

This development also facilitates the state government’s target of achieving 95 per cent broadband coverage in populated areas by 2020 and 100 per cent coverage with a minimum throughput of 100mbps by 2030 as it progresses towards a digital economy.