The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has revealed that it expects at least 800 more villages in Sabah to benefit from free access to wireless internet services deployed as part of its National Broadband Plan (NBP). Further, the Borneo Post cited Bukhari Yahya, the MCMC’s director for Sabah and Labuan as saying that he was confident the regulator could provide the facility to another 500 locations (on top of the other 800 to be rolled out) by the end of 2012, with the executive noting: ‘With this facility, they (villagers) are able to access the borderless world for free and empower knowledge through use of ICT (Internet Communication Technology).’
Meanwhile, Yayha said that alongside the wireless internet rollout initiative the MCMC is also upgrading its 3G technology and reception to rural areas and providing 28 more ‘1Malaysia Internet centres’ (formerly known as community broadband centres [CBCs]) across Sabah.
As noted in TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, according to the MCMC’s most recent data, the state has yet to achieve its rollout targets for rural infrastructure, and at the end of 2011 a total of 251 CBCs had been constructed, up from 240 a year earlier, with 176,508 registered members across them, while a further 121 mini-CBCs had also been rolled out across the nation.