Sector

National Broadband Initiative

The National Broadband Implementation Strategy or better known as National Broadband Initiative (NBI) puts in place a national strategy that will bring broadband to the whole nation. In 2007 the Government of Malaysia set its target to achieve 50% household broadband penetration by the end of 2010.

To this end, the Government of Malaysia introduced 5 initiatives on the 24th of March 2010.

  1. Rakyat Internet Centers (Pusat Internet Rakyat) and Mini Community Broadband Centers 
  2. 1 Million Netbook Initiative to distribute notebooks to poor students nationwide
  3. Setting up of E-Kiosks
  4. CBC to the Home
  5. Expansion of Cellular Coverage

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Implementation

A strategy was identified that would encompass both the supply and demand aspects of broadband.

On the supply aspect, broadband infrastructure and services will be rolled out throughout the country. The delivery of services will be through wired and wireless connectivity, while the existing broadband and cellular coverage expanded under the Universal Service Provision (USP) initiative.

For the high economic impact areas, the current broadband services will be upgraded to provide higher speed of more than 10Mbps. The Government signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) to roll out high-speed broadband infrastructure at selected areas. The project is called the High Speed Broadband (HSBB) Project.

Understanding that supply alone is insufficient, an effective strategy was implemented to encourage demand with the emphasis on Awareness, Attractiveness and Affordability.

The approach for creating awareness will be through continuous government and private sector involvement in the awareness programs and capacity building initiatives. In order to improve the attractiveness of online content, efforts will be focused to enhance and promote e-Government, e-Education and e-Commerce.

Efforts are also underway to digitize the traditional information resources such as libraries and archives, etc. and have them available online. Various incentives to reduce broadband access costs and widen community access are being developed to bridge the digital divide.

Benefits

  • The implementation of broadband will create a tangible impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution of the country. Based on the statistics for year 2008, the communications and multimedia industry contributed 6.1% in terms of revenue to the country’s GDP.
  • The use of broadband will increase the national competitiveness and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country.
  • Broadband is one of the enabler for knowledge-based economy and will create 135,000 new high value jobs in the ICT sector.
  • The implementation of broadband services will create a spin-off effect in other sectors such as engineering, local content development and broadcasting.
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