Government unveils latest broadband investment plans

The government of Malaysia has said that it intends to spend MYR800 million (USD210 million) on rolling out high speed internet services to rural areas as part of its National Broadband Plan (NBP). Minister for Energy, Water and Communications, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, said that the state would invest funds in the deployment of towers and wireless transmitters in an effort to encourage service providers to extend their offerings to the country’s more remote provinces. The government is keen to improve Malaysia’s woeful broadband penetration rate, which at around 0.6% is one of the lowest in the region and light years behind the likes of South Korea (23%), Hong Kong (18.5%) and Taiwan (13.5%). According to official sources, at the end of March 2004 there were 142,000 high speed internet subscribers in Malaysia, most of which are in Kuala Lumpur.