Work order for construction of telecommunication towers under JENDELA 1 to be issued this month - Annuar

In acknowledging delay in the implementation of JENDELA 1, despite the tenders having been issued as early as last March, he said the ministry's goal was to ensure the country's migration to 4G-based services by end of the year.

"Our objective is to ascertain that by the end of this year, the 3G facilities will be closed for us to migrate to 4G-based services.

"For that to happen, we want to ensure that by the end of next year, the provision of 4G facilities should cover 96.7 percent of the nation's coverage, and as such the ministry will ensure implementation of the JENDELA programme will be given high priority," he said during a question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a supplementary question by Ahmad Hassan (Warisan-Papar) who wanted to know when the telecommunication tower in his area would be built.

To a supplementary question from Ahmad Johnie Zawawi (GPS-Igan) on whether the government intended to make it compulsory for telecommunication companies to provide transmitters at every new tower that was built, Annuar said it was compulsory under JENDELA.

"I would like to give a soft reminder to the service providers that they do not think only think of making profit, the ministry understands... we will monitor so that the profit be also returned for rural services.

"I have done some random checks and found that there are places where telcos do not provide the service as advertised, this is not fair to consumers," he added.

On plans to upgrade internet access in Igan, Annuar said it involved the construction of 12 new towers, four of which were completed; upgrading of 45 transmitter stations with 15 of them completed, and construction of two towers using satellite broadband, which will be implemented soon.