In 2002, there was a slight cheer and euphoria for the communications and multimedia industry in Malaysia which had just recorded a continuous three successive years of growth, following the turmoil of the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998. It was against this background that the Industry, under the guidance of the then Ministry of Energy, Communications and Multimedia and the Malaysian
Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) decided on the need to embark on a project which would plan ahead for the next ten years in terms of planning for the nation’s infrastructure,
especially in view of the declining fixed line penetration rate. Against this backdrop, the National Broadband Plan (NBP) was developed.

The NBP took almost two years of painstaking consultation, planning and strategising but nevertheless, looking back, it was a major positive step taken, as the planners already forecasted in those early days that broadband would become crucial as the next step for the development of all Internet services in Malaysia and e-Government and e-commerce in particular. The Government was tasked to embark on a thorough study on the needs of government intervention in carving out a national plan for orderly and forward looking deployment of broadband supply in Malaysia.

Under these premises, the Government’s team decided pounced on the opportunity to introduce a comprehensive National Broadband Plan with the following initial objectives:

• Generate adequate supply in terms of broadband infrastructure, via various available technologies deemed appropriate by 2008;
• Stimulate demand to ensure efficient take-up of broadband services via suitable content & applications services;
• Explore various funding mechanisms to finance the project; and
• Identify gaps in existing regulations and where necessary, introduce new ones to facilitate broadband rollout.

In October 2004, after almost two years of careful deliberations, consultations and planning with more than 10 Government agencies, NGOs, and not forgetting the industry stakeholders and even
members of the public, the Malaysian Cabinet approved the National Broadband Plan, together with the instructions to implement it over a 10 year period.

To facilitate the achievement of the NBP’s objective, a full time NBP Secretariat was formed within the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC) which will work closely with MCMC who
would continue to be the chief regulating agency, especially in terms of regulatory and implementing matters.

MyICMS 886 and the Need to Deliver High Speed Broadband to the Masses

With the introduction of the nation’s new 5 year ICT Blueprint better known as MyICMS 886, the National Broadband Plan took on an even greater impetus. The Minister of Energy Water & Communications, YB Dato’ Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, rightfully emphasised the importance of the NBP by placing High Speed Broadband infrastructure, which will spur high speed Internet connectivity anytime and anywhere regardless of whether the user is on the move or stationary, as the first “milestone” Service to overcome under the MyICMS 886.

The visionary MyICMS 886 Blueprint also correctly pinpointed that the driving force of the High Speed Broadband service will be the abundant availability of multimedia content and application services which are delivered on the Internet. With this key broadband service in place, the ability to provide all other essential services including digital homes, short range communications,VoIP via the Universal Services Provision (USP) comes into play riding on a multitude platform of hard and soft infrastructure

Henceforth, it was not surprising that the planners underscore the need to provide truly high speed Internet services by having set the targets or KPIs for broadband services as follows:

• By end 2006, the total number of subscribers is expected to be 1.3 million and this is targeted to reach 2.8 million by 2008;
• Optical fibre access will contribute a 10% penetration rate for broadband from 2008 to 2010; and
• By end of 2010, it is expected that the total broadband connection will reach 75% penetration rate for household.

No doubt that the above targets are abundantly high and henceforth so is the challenge. Nevertheless, this formidable task of reaching such high expectations has been assumed by the MEWC and the MCMC in their drive to leapfrog the country to keep in pace with the neighbouring states in Asia and beyond and there is no time to waste. As in April 2006, Malaysia’s broadband penetration rate stands at a mere 560,000 subscribers or less than 2.5%. The bulk of these subscribers currently utilise ADSL technology which, although is widely accepted in most parts of the world as a proven technology
capable of reaching out to the masses, nevertheless, has room for upgrading to reach the ever increasing demand for greater and faster bandwidth. Other wireless technologies, ranging from LMDS, MMDS, WiFi and even of late, Wimax are expected to compliment wired technologies, but by and large, MCMC’s survey has analysed and forecasted that at most, the entire wireless market will take up only a 30% share of the total broadband subscribers by 2008. Satellite and Broadband Power Line communications will take up the balance of the market economically unreachable by the earlier conventional wired or wireless means.

>>> Read more about Malaysia's National Broadband Plan (NBP) here (PDF  1.96MB)

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