Broadnet Network has relinquished all its licences to MCMC: Minister

PETALING JAYA: Broadnet Network Sdn Bhd, a surprise entrant tasked with building the country's high-speed broadband network infrastructure by former communications and multimedia minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak last year, has surrendered its licences to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
According to Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, in response to queries from SunBiz, Broadnet relinquished its licences a few weeks ago. Broadnet held Network Facilities Provider and Network Service Provider licences which allowed it to bid for infrastructure jobs.
"I recently announced that we will be developing the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) to replace the Nationwide Fiberisation Plan (NFP). This new approach will consist of fibre, fixed wireless and satellite access to achieve nationwide internet coverage. We believe the NFCP will provide internet access across the nation in the shortest time frame possible," Gobind said.
Details of the NFCP are yet to be disclosed.
According to him, Broadnet, which counted names such as Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa and Augustus Ralph Marshall as its board members, had not finalised commercial arrangements in order to implement the NFP, via a public-private partnership model mooted by Salleh.
The NFP was part of the previous government's 2017-2019 plan to connect six million premises in the country to a fibre network.
According to Salleh, the Finance Ministry was to hold a golden share in Broadnet, and Ali Hamsa was to be chairman of the company.
Checks by SunBiz showed that the company's entire board of directors have left, leaving only Datuk Mohd Ali Abd Samad (former ECM Libra chairman), who is also the company's sole shareholder.
A Companies Commission Malaysia search done last year revealed that Ali Hamsa, Mohd Ali, Marshall, IJM Corp Bhd deputy non-executive chairman Tan Sri Tan Boon Seng @ Krishnan and former Communications and Multimedia Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad were directors of Broadnet.
The disclosure of Broadnet's exit from the national high-speed broadband project comes after Telekom Malaysia Bhd and Tenaga Nasional Bhd aborted plans, announced earlier this year, to work together in rolling out a cost-efficient high-speed broadband service.