Selangor government confirms that all 2,500 free WiFi hotspots will be set up by the end of the year

AS OF the end of last month, the Selangor government had finished setting up 1,378 free WiFi Selangorku hotspots throughout the state, said Science, Technology and Innovation committee chairman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

Replying to Shahrum Mohd Sharif’s (BN-Dengkil) query on the progress in reaching the targeted 2,500 hotspots, Nik Nazmi explained that the targeted number would be achieved by the end of the year.

“All in all, the costs will total RM65mil,” said Nik Nazmi during the question-and-answer session.

Although the state government had received offers from Naza, YTL (through its subsidiary Kumpulan Jaringan Selangor) and P1, Nik Nazmi explained that the state had chosen to use telco providers Celcom Axiata and TM Berhad.

“These two telco providers have the most complete infrastructure, as the other providers are still using back-end infrastructure from TM,” said Nik Nazmi.

He added that before setting up one hotspot, the contractors would first visit the site and make sure it was a public area with plenty of foot traffic.

Shahrum also asked whether studies were done on WiFi accessibility, speeds, data quota and post-installation usage.

“For this, we have requested the district offices and local government authorities to monitor and give us feedback,” Nik Nazmi said.

Currently, internet speeds in non-urban areas were restricted to mostly 8mbps, due to the older and less efficient copper cabling.

“We are in the process of replacing these with fibre optic cables to boost speeds as much as possible,” he added.