Faster, cheaper Internet access in the pipeline

Datuk Jailani Johari (second left) at the launching of the submarine fiber optic cable in Tanjung Aru..

KOTA KINABALU: Faster and cheaper Internet access services are in the offing once a multimillion submarine fiber optic cable linking the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak is completed next year.  

Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Jailani Johari (pix) said the completion of the 1Malaysia submarine cable system would boost bandwidth capacity between the peninsula, and the two states, to four Terabytes per second.  

“This will be eventually scaled up to 12 Terabytes per second compared to the existing 25-year-old undersea cable with a capacity of just 600 to 700 Gigabytes per second,” he said when witnessing the landing of the new undersea cable at Tanjung Aru near here on Monday.  

He said the 3,800 fiber optic cable system costing RM619mil was being laid like a ring linking Mersing in Johor to Kuching, and then onwards to Bintulu, Miri and Kota Kinabalu.  

The next portion of the work would see the undersea cable connecting Kota Kinabalu to Cherating in Pahang.  

Work on the cable system was due to be completed by June next year with RM412mil of the costs being borne by the Communications and Multimedia Ministry while the remaining RM207mil provided by Telekom Malaysia.  

Jailani said the submarine cable was the backbone of data services from which broadband Internet service providers could utilise.  

“With this new cable, data transfer rates will substantially increase but just as importantly, it will also provide for more opportunities for Internet service providers to come on board,” he said.  

“With this, there will be more competition and hopefully, this will help drive down Internet access costs,” Jailani added.  

He said with its higher capacity, the new cable system would ease data traffic congestion to improve Internet speed and quality.  

“Without doubt, this cable system will bring positive impact on Malaysia’s ICT industry,” Jailani added.  

He said the new submarine cable system was also among the initiatives under the Economic Transformation Programme that was striving for 95% of the nation’s populated areas to have Internet access by 2020.