No More Climbing Trees For Internet Services

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Last year, Universiti Malaysia Sabah student Veveonah Mosibin said she had to climb a tree to get good internet coverage for her exam but Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob says that will be a thing of the past. (File pic)KUALA LUMPUR: The nation’s digitalisation agenda, including 5G connectivity, will be a main focus of the 2022 budget, said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
In an interview, he said the government wanted the entire country to have internet coverage two years from now, and make sure there were no areas with poor coverage.
“We don’t want any more ‘tree climbing’ issues in Sabah and Sarawak to get internet coverage. We don’t want to be left behind,” he said, referring to reports of students who had resorted to climbing trees and going to higher ground simply to connect to the internet for their exams.
The nation’s digitalisation agenda led by Digital Nasional Bhd will form part of the budget to be tabled by finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz in Parliament on Friday, he said.
Ismail said efforts to strengthen digitalisation was crucial based on the experience during the pandemic which saw a shift to online services, Bernama reported.
During an interview with the media on the budget here today, he said the effort would be carried out through the national digital network plan (Jendela), under which a total of 6.43 million premises nationwide will be covered by fibre optic networks with gigabit access.
Ismail said the plan to achieve a target of 7.5 million premises under the network by the end of 2022 was on track.
The prime minister also said various initiatives had been offered to encourage 3G users to switch to 4G, such as the Jaringan Prihatin Programme, Remaja Keluarga Malaysia Package and Peranti Keluarga Malaysia Package.
As of last month, 4G coverage reached 94%, he said.
All economic sectors are expected to benefit from 5G, which also created a new ecosystem in delivering the 4th Industrial Revolution, digital transformation, cloud services, Internet of Things data and Artificial Intelligence, he added.
“Overall, the 2022 budget is an effort to reflect the country’s determination to develop a more sustainable and inclusive economy, as well as to attract businesses to make our country their major investment destination.” - FMT

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