DARO: Sarawak can only achieve 99 per cent internet coverage by 2030, said Utility and Telecommunications Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi.
He said this is vastly due to the challenging topography and rugged terrain in the state.
“Logically, we can achieve 99.9 per cent communication coverage by 2030 in line with our Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030.
“We planned to achieve it much earlier but it is very challenging because we are facing so many obstacles,” he said during a briefing with community leaders at the district office here yesterday.
He said among the challenges faced by the authority is to acquire land to build telecommunication towers even though the government has allocated the necessary funding to implement communication connectivity throughout Sarawak.
“As you all know, Sarawak is physically big and geographically very challenging to implement communication and internet connectivity to our people.
“That’s why we need approximately 7,000 towers to have comprehensive coverage and seamless connectivity in the state,” he said.
Julaihi stated that thus far, 3,471 towers or structures have been built and 1,043 new ones are in various stages of implementation.
“Three hundred of these new towers built by the Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) are in the process of telco equipment installation carried out by the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC).
“The delay is due mainly to the shortage of chipset globally. The remaining 300 towers will be built by SDEC under the second phase,” he said.
Commenting on the completed towers, he said that there are some cases where the towers are built close to each other, as each plays its own part.
“This is not something uncommon because each plays a different role.
“One of these towers may be the main tower and the other the ‘repeater’ or a hub to link up the transmission from other villages due to line of sight,” he explained.
He advised people still using 3G Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards to change them to 4G SIM cards with their respective telcos to improve their communication coverage.
“You need to upgrade your SIM cards in order for you to use 4G coverage which is much better than 3G.
“And for your information, 3G is no longer in service as all telcos have migrated to 4G,” he said.
