Julaihi delivers his remarks during the press conference. — Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING (Sept 6): The Sarawak government is calling upon telecommunication service providers (telcos) to utilise the infrastructures provided to ensure that the full Internet coverage target can be achieved as early as possible.
In relation to this, Utility and Telecommunication Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi says Sarawak government is funding the construction of 600 telecommunication towers through Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) as part of the 7,000-tower target set for the state.
He also points out that in addition to building these towers, the government through Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC) is installing telecommunication facilities at these towers for the telcos.
“At first (the facilities) were not installed because we had hoped that the service providers would utilise it (the tower). But it seems the focus of these service providers is more on the urban areas and not on the rural areas, which they deem as being less profitable.
“They are looking at the bottom-line for their investments.
“But we are encouraging them to go over and extend their services in the rural areas because we are building the towers already, and it costs us a lot of money,” he told a press conference after launching the ‘Batam Sarawak Internet Cable System’ (BaSICS) and ‘Santubong Tier IV Data Centre’ by Kuching-based telecommunications company ‘irix’ on Tuesday.
Julaihi also highlighted Sarawak’s target of achieving full Internet coverage across the state by 2030, or 2025 the earliest, and towards this goal, it was constructing 7,000 towers, including the 600 being implemented by the SMA.
According to him, close to 3,500 towers have been built throughout Sarawak, while
1,043 more are in the process of construction.
“We found out that to reach the target of 7,000 towers, it would take some time.
“Therefore once all these towers are completed, we request that all the service providers to utilise these towers so that Internet coverage can reach the intended areas,” he said.
The minister also said Sarawak government was spending RM2 billion to expand the Internet service coverage, on top of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) having approved RM4 billlion for the construction and installation of telecommunication facilities throughout the state.
“It is our hope that with the infrastructures provided, including those by irix, we could provide the opportunty to the telecommunication industry players to connect more areas in Sarawak to the outsise world.
“We are doing it right now. Of course, there are those who question it due to not having good Internet connectivity, but I can assure you that thge Sarawak government is very serious in doing it,” he said.
Taking the construction of the coastal road network as an example, Julaihi said such effort would lead to better linkages and the construction of bridges to connect the missing links despite early criticism.
“The same goes with Internet coverage,” he said, adding that the objective was in line with the target to transform Sarawak into becoming a high-income state by 2030.
On the 5G network in Sarawak, the minister said Digital Nasional Berhad had been rolling out the deployment of 5G networks into identified areas in Kuching, Miri and Bintulu.