Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said the ministry would collaborate with state governments to resolve issues pertaining to the provision of telecommunications infrastructure and services, which fell under their respective authorities.
“To improve the quality of telecommunications services in the rural areas, the (federal) government has focused on improving 3G coverage by constructing new communication towers and upgrading existing ones via the Universal Service Provision (USP) programme,” he said when winding up the debate on the 2017 Supply Bill for his ministry at the Dewan Rakyat here yesterday.
As for 4G mobile broadband coverage, Salleh said the expansion was now being implemented with focus on main, medium and small cities.
“4G coverage will be extended to rural areas in stages until 2020,” he said.
In replying to a question by Wee Jeck Seng (BN-Tanjung Piai) on the issue of creating a monopoly, Salleh said such an issue did not arise as qualified parties could apply for a licence to supply the services.
On the issue concerning high-speed broadband projects, he said the implementation of such a facility in the country, involving one million premises, was now entering its second phase, and is expected to be completed by next year.
In addition, Salleh said the government was now implementing the Broadband for General Population project, involving seven links along the 170km of fibre optic cable networks, which will also be completed next year.
On the other hand, the Sub-Urban Broadband projects, which was started last year, will go on till 2019, he said, adding the installation would cover 252,000 premises in sub-urban areas.
On the issue of sexual grooming online, including paedophile cases, Salleh hoped the community would play its part effectively by controlling children’s use of telecommunications facilities, and report to the authorities if there were doubtful communications between children and individuals on the internet.
Meanwhile, the minister said MCMC has collaborated with Internet Service Providers (ISP) to come out with Parental Control Application Tools to enable them to self monitor and filter the content accessed by their children.
On the issue pertaining to the monitoring of online gambling, Salleh said the ISPs provided a screening system to block the sending of the short messaging service promoting online gambling activity.
“This has led to the reduction of complaints received by MCMC, from 194 complaints in March to 40 complaints in September,” he said.