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Digital Inclusion

Govt to connect 300 Malaysian villages

By Pia Rufino | 14 March 2011

A total of 300 villages in Pahang, the third largest Malaysian state with 1,435,701 inhabitants, will get Wi-Fi access by year-end.

Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, Information Communication and Culture Minister said the Kampung (village) Wi-Fi programme by the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) involved the construction of 863 telecommunication towers in stages.

“No county in parliamentary and state constituencies in Pahang will be left out,” he said after launching a communalising of arts and culture programme at Desa Murni.

Desa Murni is the first Wi-Fi village in the Temerloh district with the construction of a telecommunication tower powered by two megabyte per second capacity. He said 11 more villages in the Kerdau state constituency would be getting Wi-Fi services.

“Although there is no fibre optic service to the villages at present, we believe that with efforts undertaken by the MCMC through Kampung WiFi, broadband penetration in the remote or interior areas can be fully achieved by the year end,” said Rais.

He said 1,000 Kampung WiFi would be launched nationwide by the year end, with 100 of it is be establish in Melaka.

The project would cost an estimated RM25, 000 (US$8225) to RM30, 000 (US$9870) each depending on its distance from the town centre or community centre equipped with Internet wireless facility.

Rais said he hopes the public would be patient if they faced the problem of slow Internet connection in the WiFi villages.

“The Kampung WiFi broadband facility gives minimum benefit; it’s not very fast. We think the speed is around 4 megabytes per second in Merlimau Pasir. If there are many users, it will be slow. This is normal,” he explained adding that this will be overcome with this increasingly sophisticated industry.

The broadband penetration in Malaysia is currently at 57.4 per cent. The government is eyeing for a 60 per cent broadband penetration in urban areas by the year end.

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