DPM should look at Malaysian broadband speed

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Central Government including the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to improve greatly the Malaysian broadband speed so that the Malaysian Communications and Multimrdia Commission is able to look at the Ultrabroadband Future.

The Broadband Action Brigade should act so that Malaysia will not be lagging so far behind in broadband speed. Korea is looking for wireless broadband.

It is important for Tan Sri Muhyiddin to access his computer in the House so that he will understand what is meant by broadband penetration and download speed. Since the House installs a computer for every member of parliament over a year ago, we are constantly struggling with the snail pace of the braoadband.

On 29.10.2010, Dr Tan issues a statement believing that the Deputy Prime Minister's perception on broadband penetration in the country as surpassing the 50% target set for the end of this year has not reflected the full picture.

Even though my statement may not be accepted by the traditional media, readers can see it in the Internet.
Muhyiddin said statistics up to the middle of this month showed that the initiatives and programmes launched under the National Broadband Initiative, which included expansion through the use of technologies on various platforms, had increased broadband penetration to 53.5%.
He said the increase was a vast improvement from the 22% penetration recorded in 2008, which meant that the country was well on its way towards achieving the target of 75% broadband penetration nationwide by 2015.
“On the Universal Service Provision programme under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Muhyiddin said RM800mil a year was used to buy laptop computers for needy students nationwide. There should be stringent supervision of this fund. to prevent irregularities.

South Korea's current broadband speed is 10 megabytes, increasing to 1 Gigabytes by 2012. Her download speed is 33.91 Mb/s, ranking as number one in the world compared with Malaysia's 1.94 Mb/s which is 104th in the world. Ghana is 44th, Rwanda 65th, The Phillipines 93rd and Uganda 95th. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is spending US24,6 billion to upgrade Korean IT infrastructure including wireless broadband.

We hope that by 2015, Malaysia's broadband penetration will reach 75% and very soon 100%. But, broadband penetration without the speed is unacceptable. Why is Malaysia lagging behind Uganda, The Phillipines, Rwanda and Ghana?

Every time I enter the House, I cannot help but think about the Malaysian broadband speed. Is it possible to have an Ultrabroadband Future?

Dr Tan Seng Giaw