KUCHING: The ‘East-West Submarine Cable System’ (or EWS), the undersea-cable linking Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, was this weekend the subject of bilateral debate in the media, said a press release yesterday.
EWS is the conduit to enhancing Sarawak’s telecommunications network, broadband capacity and connects Sarawak’s rural areas to the Internet. Debate over the weekend revolved around the fact that the EWS cable that uses two connection points on the Indonesian islands of Natuna and Anambas.
EWS uses these two connection points to regenerate and boost the signal which allows the cable to maintain its bandwidth, delivering enhanced connectivity to Sarawak.
On 14 June, 2002, the undersea cable project received its full permits and paperwork to proceed and the project was completed within two years. Based on new laws and regulations, EWS was taken offline on 20 November, 2016. Subsequently after numerous meetings from November 2016 to February 2017, between EWS operator (SACOFA) and their Indonesian regulatory counterparts the Kementerian Komunikasi Dan
Informatika issued a “Surat Penghentian Penyidikan Perkara” clearing EWS and ceasing all investigations into EWS, effective 6 February, 2017.
Speaking about the status of EWS, Zaid Zaini, Managing Director of SACOFA, said: “We believe that this can be resolved quickly. It should just be a matter of explaining thoroughly that EWS does not provide any commercial service to the residents of Natuna and Anambas – that it is merely a connection point, which should then exempt it from requiring a landing rights permit. We are on-hand to provide any further information or specifications to the authorities to facilitate the resolution to this misunderstanding.
“As a responsible company, we always respect the laws, customs and cultures of the countries in which we operate, always seeking continuous dialogue and exploring enhanced engagement with authorities, regulators and the communities of Indonesia,” explained Zaid Zaini, the statement concluded.
