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Delivering ICT services to undeserved districts

17 May 2004, New Straits Times
THE universal service provision (USP) programme, currently in the second phase, will see to it that the remaining underserved districts are equipped with payphones and fixed-lines by year-end. Nasaruddin Che Abu, general manager, regulatory division, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), says an underserved area is defined as an area having below the 20 per cent national penetration rate of telecommunications services. Out of the 89 districts identified, the pilot USP project was carried out last year in three districts, namely Julau in Sarawak, Kinabatangan in Sabah, and Yan in Kedah. “The remaining 86 districts will be divided into three groups. We have received 16 bids from our licensees and expect to finalise the bids for the first group by end of this month, by June-end for the second group, and by July or August for the third group,” Nasaruddin says. The nine districts in the first group are Kanowit, Samarahan and Sri Aman in Sarawak; Beluran, Kunak and Tongod in Sabah; and Besut, Lipis and Jeli in the peninsula. The second group, Nasaruddin says, will cover the remaining 18 districts in Sabah while the third group will cover 59 districts in Sarawak and the peninsula. “Once we’ve decided on the bids, the licensees will start the rollout of the projects immediately. Completion of their projects, based on the pilot, will take between four and six months. As such, we’re confident that the underserved communities will receive the services by year-end.” MCMC, he adds, has received 119 bids from licensees for the first group and 963 bids for the remaining two groups. Each district will be equipped with 500 phone lines and 30 payphone facilities. “We’re sticking to a conservative figure to minimise risks and investments for our licensees. We would also like to see how the take-up will be first instead of just allocating a thousand lines,” Nasaruddin says, adding that some districts, although underserved, may have strong demand for the service while other districts may not have much demand. “In Yan, Kedah, for example, all 630 phone lines provided were taken up fast. However, in some longhouses in Sarawak, demand is higher for payphones compared to private lines.” The bidding companies have proposed the use of various technologies for the rollout, including fibre and copper lines for fixed-line communications, and code division multiple access (CDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), wireless broadband and wireless local loop for wireless services. According to Nasaruddin, MCMC will learn from the shortcomings from the districts served earlier and make improvements in the other districts. “Hopefully by the second year of the programme, we can move faster to cater to the growing needs in each district,” he says, adding that MCMC plans to undertake a socio-economic study to gauge the effectiveness of the programme after the service is rolled out to all of the districts.
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