Public-Private Partnership project to pump in a total of RM11.3 billion to bring high-speed broadband coverage to 1.3 million premises nationwide

The era of teleworking, digital homes and telehealth are just around the corner for Malaysians. The advent of High Speed Broadband (HSBB) will bring this era into reality.

The Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC) and Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today signed the Public-Private Partnership agreement to officially launch Phase 1 of the national High-Speed Broadband (HSBB) initiative.

HSBB is a premium broadband service with speeds of 10Mbps (Megabits per seconds) to 100 Mbps for residential customers and up to 1Gbps (Gigabits per seconds) for businesses for high economic impact areas delivered via fibre optic infrastructure. The infrastructure will be rolled out over a period of 10 years with the Government investing RM2.4 billion and TM RM8.9 billion to provide high-speed broadband access to over 1.3 million premises by 2012. Phase 1 of the project will cover the Inner Klang Valley, all key economic and industrial zones throughout the country, the Iskandar Malaysia Region, all IPTAs throughout the nation and all IPTS within the rollout areas.

HSBB is a key project that will eventually result in a world-class network. Its benefits are manifold.

• For the country, besides, contributing significantly to economic growth, it will also enhance the nation’s competitiveness in the region. HSBB will also act as a catalyst to spur the development of the local content eco-system as well as help attract international content providers to relocate their operations to Malaysia thus helping the country to save costs in the long run for consumers and businesses

• More significantly, for consumers, it promises a new lifestyle experience from all aspects such as teleworking, telehealth, infotainment, virtual shopping, high resolution video on demand, gaming, distance education among others.

• Businesses too for example will be able to improve management efficiency through new applications in managed services in accounting, supply chain or customer relationship management and can enjoy better integration with business partners worldwide

• From a social perspective, HSBB will spur the development of an IT savvy society, with knowledge capital development that will help in bridging the digital divide

Under the HSBB initiative, TM will roll-out last mile access network to homes and businesses to facilitate HSBB services using 3 main technologies, i.e. fibre-to-the home (FTTH), Ethernet-to-the-home (ETTH) and Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL2). In addition, TM will be rolling out its Next-Generation Network (NGN) core backbone network based on an all IP Platform as well as grow the nation’s global capacities by building new international gateways for enhanced connectivity and network efficiency.

YAB Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak, Deputy Prime Minister and Dato' Shaziman bin Abu Mansor, Minister of Energy, Water & Communications today witnessed the signing of the partnership between the Government and TM. Dato’ Dr. Halim Man, Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy, Water & Communications represented the Government while Dato’ Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group CEO of TM signed on behalf of the Company.

Speaking at the event, YAB Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak, “HSBB will be a key national infrastructure initiative which will allow Malaysia to enhance its economic competitiveness in the region, help attract FDI to the country as well as accelerate the nation’s ICT and high-tech aspirations and agenda through an enhanced knowledge capital workforce. More importantly, consumers will now be able to enjoy an exciting lifestyle with a variety of services such as high speed Internet access, file sharing, e-commerce, e-government, e-learning, video-conferencing, web browsing, IPTV and high definition TV.”

Further explaining the benefits of HSBB, he added “Our research indicates that the positive impact of broadband services towards the annual GDP will be 1% with an estimated 135,000 new jobs being created by 2010. HSBB alone is estimated to increase the country’s GDP by 0.6%. This is very encouraging and I am confident that we will be able to see more benefits with the HSBB investment.”

Speaking on the benefits of HSBB to the public, “HSBB will also make teleworking a realistic choice as transfer of data can be carried out efficiently. In addition, HSBB will enable consumers to use real-time interactive applications such as video conferencing for their discussions without their presence in the actual physical location. This is a reality in developed countries and is fast becoming a much-used tool. This will definitely please those who are concerned about the rising price of fuel and are environmentally conscious.”

The importance of HSBB cannot be ignored or be overstated, as it will provide immense benefits to Malaysia and its citizens. Hence, it can no longer be viewed as a luxury. In developing the HSBB infrastructure, the Government had evaluated several implementation models and based on findings it was decided that HSBB is to be rolled out quickly in a cost-efficient manner. The Government will ensure that other players are able to access the HSBB network on fair terms and at a reasonable wholesale price. The Government wants HSBB to be a competitive market with healthy competition. This will be done through a sound regulatory framework.

Realising the importance of the contribution of this industry to the country’s growth, Dato' Shaziman Abu Mansor, said, “The Ministry has taken numerous initiatives to expedite the implementation of projects and activities to increase the penetration of broadband in Malaysia. To ensure that we achieve 50% penetration by 2010, the approach taken by the Ministry is to fulfill the supply and demand of the service. The supply of the service is focused on the provisioning of infrastructure facilities and to meet the supply requirement, the Government will not only focus on the HSBB initiatives, but also Broadband to the General Population (BBGP).”

“The Government is confident that with the combination of the current available technologies such as Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH), WiMAX, ADSL and 3G/HSDPA and the commitment from all relevant parties, we can achieve the 50% broadband penetration target,” he added.

He further enthused, “The Ministry is responsible in ensuring the smooth implementation of the HSBB project and is a success. This includes ensuring an open network and a clear regulatory framework to ensure that the network infrastructure is beneficial to all telcos including TM.”

Tan Sri Ir. Md Radzi Mansor, Chairman of TM said, “We are indeed grateful to the Government for the trust and confidence placed on TM. Rest assured that TM is fully committed in supporting the Malaysian Government in the HSBB initiative, which will go a long way towards achieving the goals defined under the National Broadband Plan. On our part, we would also like to reiterate that we will ensure that the HSBB network will be open to all qualified licensed operators in line with the Government’s aspirations. Towards this end, we will be offering three wholesale products, namely High Speed Broadband Transmission Service, High Speed Broadband Connection Service and High Speed Broadband Access Service. I am confident that with these products, the operators can repackage and provide new services and solutions to their customers.”

About TM

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Malaysia’s leading integrated information and communications group, offers a comprehensive range of communication services and solutions in broadband, data and fixed-line. As a market leader in the broadband and fixed-line businesses, TM is driven to deliver value to its stakeholders in a highly competitive environment. The Group places emphasis on continuing customer service quality enhancements and innovations.

With its extensive global connectivity, TM is poised to position Malaysia as a regional Internet hub and digital gateway for South-East Asia. In line with this, TM is evolving into a Next Generation Network service provider enabling the Group to enhance its efficiency and productivity while providing enriched products and services.

On the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) front, the Group has always been a major corporate contributor towards responsible activities in the belief that these practices are a fundamental tenet of good corporate governance. The Group promotes 3 major platforms i.e. education, sports development and community/nation-building. Under education, TM has spent some RM800 million to develop Multimedia University into one of the top universities in Malaysia with more than 20,000 students. TM has also provided scholarships to over 10,000 graduates pursuing academic programmes locally and overseas. On the sports front, TM is actively contributing towards the upliftment of football at all levels while under the community/nation-building platform, the Group contributes towards causes that bring value to the community and nation at large. TM was awarded the prestigious STAR-BIZ ICRM Corporate Responsibility Award under the workplace category for 2008.

For further information on TM, visit www.tm.com.my .

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