Deferment of full access to HSBB will impede national broadband agenda

Kuala Lumpur – PIKOM, the National ICT Association of Malaysia, views the limiting access infrastructure networks as a set back to the effort of increasing broadband penetration.

Its chairman David Wong Nan Fay made this comment in the wake of reports on the Government’s decision to defer full access to the soon-to-be-built High Speed Broadband (HSBB) network to industry players, except for Telekom Malaysia, by seven years to 2015,

He says PIKOM feels strongly that the telecommunications industry should be liberalized further and competition should be encouraged.

“Without a level playing field, it would be difficult for players to compete against Telekom Malaysia which controls the national broadband backbone.”

Nevertheless, he adds that there are also other choices of broadband communication infrastructure such as WiMax and WiFi. These services have been rolled out in several states in Malaysia already.

“We hope there will be continue to be more innovative and competitive services by these players in the future,” says Wong, who is also the Group Chief Executive Officer of SnT Global.