KUALA LUMPUR: Connectivity will bring the communities closer as one family in the nation-building process in line with the Malaysian Family concept, said Minister of Communications and Multimedia Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said Malaysia was a unique country based on history, background, socio-culture and geography and connectivity would give a more meaningful impact to the concept of the Malaysian Family.

According to Annuar, if the people regarded Malaysia as family, all divides and disconnectivity problems must be solved.

"As such, I regard the issue of connectivity as not just connectivity, but the quality of the connection as a basic human right or the right of every Malaysian," he said in a television programme titled 'Inklusif' (Inclusive) by Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) tonight.

Annuar said the effort must become a national agenda that must be aggressively supported in ensuring all the government's plans are implemented.

Meanwhile, Annuar said that his postings on social media regarding the people's hopes received a lot of feedback, among them were relating to connectivity, especially the quality of Internet coverage, as well as asking the government to check abuse of social media.

Annuar said he had given himself until the end of next year to resolve the issue of poor digital coverage.

"I want to ensure the rollout of the programme to build several thousands of telecommunication towers to enable 4G coverage reaches every corner of the country. More than 1,600 towers will be built before the end of next year," he said.

At the same time, he said, over 800 locations had been identified as remote areas in the interior and the government would need to use satellite technology so that they can get the same services as developed areas close to cities that get fibre optic services.

"That's why our target is to ensure that by the end of next year, 4G services will reach at least 97 per cent of the country's total population.

"... with speeds of between 25 and 35 megabytes per second (MBps) and we intend to ensure these areas are in a state of readiness for us to start rolling out the 5G broadband services to welcome the latest technology," he said.

Annuar also announced that Malaysia was ranked fifth according to The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which rates the cybersecurity level, and that the government would continue its campaign to raise public awareness on cybersecurity.

-- BERNAMA