4G network coverage nationwide is at nearly 93 pct to date - MCMC

KUALA LUMPUR: Nationwide coverage for the fourth generation (4G) network is now close to 93 per cent following the implementation of National Digital Infrastructure Plan (JENDELA) last year, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said.

Its chairman, Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek, said MCMC was confident that the overall 4G network coverage would reach up to 95 per cent by end of this year in line with the target of 96.9 per cent coverage by end of 2022 under the JENDELA initiative.

"When we started JENDELA in September, the 4G network coverage was only at 91.8 per cent, so this year we are aggressively working on the expansion of the coverage to provide better connectivity.

"The sunset of 3G spectrum by end of this year will also help to improve 4G network coverage as we re-farm the 3G network for the purpose of 4G," he told Bernama in an exclusive interview today.

Fadhullah said MCMC would be releasing the second report on JENDELA Phase 1 for the quarter ending March 31, 2021, by the first week of April, following the JENDELA Steering Committee's meeting chaired by Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

"We will cover three parameters in the report, namely the fiberisation of premises, the coverage of 4G and the speed of the 4G network to date, as well as the status of 3G sunset in terms of (parts of the) network that have been upgraded plus number of customers that have migrated to 4G devices," he said.

To recap, the first quarterly report on JENDELA Phase 1 earlier this year showed that close to 400,000 premises were fiberised nationwide in the first three months of the initiative.

JENDELA is targeting to pass 1.2 million premises and homes with fibre connectivity by 2021, following its target to having 7.5 million premises fiberised by 2022.

Meanwhile, Fadhlullah said the results of the tender for the installation of new towers at 1,661 sites nationwide, scheduled to close on March 31, would be announced at the end of June this year.

Commenting on the Strategic Programme to Empower the People and Economy (PEMERKASA) announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday, Fadhlullah said the RM3.2 billion allocation under the Universal Services Provision (USP) Fund was part of the RM21 billion budget set aside for the implementation of JENDELA initiatives.

"As for the amount of subsidy to buy new devices, the government via the Ministry of Finance has decided to provide higher amount of subsidy from RM180 to RM300, so the people can now opt to buy 4G devices," he added.

On the MyBAIKHATI programme under PEMERKASA, MCMC together with industry players will be crowdsourcing usable working devices and refurbish them to be distributed back to the community and the bottom 40 per cent income (B40) population.

"The refurbished devices will be distributed among the channels to community Internet centres, and to date, U Mobile, Celcom, Maxis, Digi, Time, and Telekom have come together to participate in this programme," said Fadhlullah.

-- BERNAMA