Broadband penetration to hit 50 pct by year-end

KUCHING: Sarawak’s broadband penetration is set to increase to more than 50 per cent by the end of the year. This in turn will spur the national efforts to achieve a 75 per cent penetration rate across Malaysia by 2015, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. “That is more than five million households will be online by 2015, thanks to the work of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission for continuously establishing WiFi connections in rural villages. “Also, 34 community broadband centres offering high speed broadband have been set up in 27 parliamentary constituencies across Sarawak,” he told the state-level Social Media Convention 2012 here yesterday. Najib said he was confident the state would shake off once and for all its reputation as a communications black spot. “The challenge is to also bring Internet to rural Sarawak with the same conviction as our drive to meet basic infrastructure needs like electricity and clean water supply. “With coverage under the Rural Water Supply and Electrification Programmes set to hit 90 and 95 per cent respectively by 2013, connectivity is set to improve dramatically across the board.” Towards this end, communities once considered out of range would proudly take their place on the information superhighway, he added. He pledged that not just urban areas but more rural Sarawakians would be directly connected to the World Wide Web. “I am determined to do everything possible to bring digital development to our nation’s less developed areas and to close the digital divide. “And I am confident it will not be long before we see kampung and longhouse dwellers posting messages and pictures on social media sites.” Given the 12 million Facebook users in Malaysia, Najib appealed to them to intensify and amplify what the government was doing by providing comments, tweeting and uploading photos and videos to share the truth with online viewers. He disclosed that he would be meeting, among others, his 500,000th Twitter follower in two weeks time. “I have been using blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other online platforms throughout my time as prime minister. I see this as an important part of my job because I am able to feel the rakyat’s sentiment directly.” He pointed out that social media played a great role in elections and political campaigns. The Internet opened up a new front and the challenge for all was to be pioneers in this emerging and exciting field, he said. “Simply put, the rakyat is online so we must be online too. There are so many opportunities for us to explain what the government has done, is doing and will do. “There are so many new ways for us to listen to what the rakyat are saying. But we should never forget that, as with any tool, some people will use the Internet for negative purposes.” Hence, he said it was vital to stay alert to those who spread false information against Barisan Nasional leaders and make sure that “the truth wins out.”