Salleh: Internet coverage the priority, not speed

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's priority is to ensure the rakyat have access to the Internet – rather than how fast it is, says Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak.

The Communications and Multimedia Minister was responding in a written reply Tuesday in Parliament to Dr Izani Husin (PAS-Pengkalan Chepa), who had asked why Malaysia's Internet speed was slower than in some Asean countries.

Salleh said the Government's main concern right now was to provide connectivity to many areas as possible, while those Asean nations tended to focus on Internet speed.

Despite that, he said Malaysia's position had improved - from the 71st spot to the 64th place - out of 167 countries, in the 2015 ICT Speed Index issued by the International Telecommunication Union.

"At the Asia Pacific level, Malaysia was in 8th spot in 2014 compared to the 9th position the year before. In Asean, Malaysia falls in second place, behind Singapore," he said.

Salleh added that the Government would continue to work to increase Internet speed in stages, giving priority to areas with a high economic impact because of the considerable cost involved.

"Towards this end, in 2015, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission implemented the High Speed Broadband (HSBB) Phase 2 project with 390,000 port connections," said Salleh.

Under the Sub-Urban Broadband Project (SUBB), which involved 420,000 ports, Internet speed would also be upgraded.