PUTRAJAYA: A National Digital Infrastructure Workshop (Makmal Infrastruktur Digital Negara) (Makmal) will be held to reset targets related to the country’s digital infrastructure as well as to devise a more orderly strategy in providing holistic and quality broadband services.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah (pix) said a series of Makmal workshops, to be organised by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, would be conducted from July 13 to Aug 14.
Among its objective is a holistic mapping of the country’s communication infrastructure, strategies to increase coverage and broadband quality as well as measures to optimise resources, such as spectrum and fibre optic, to enhance the national digital connectivity,” he said.
He said this was because the Covid-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) had shown that the country’s digital connectivity needed a holistic upgrading as soon as possible.
“The involvement of industries for this workshop has been identified based on several important criteria, which is a high number of customers (more than 10 per cent from the mobile market or more than five per cent from the fixed-line market),” he said in a statement today.
The industries which would be involved in the workshop would also be those which already have existing service coverage, besides having invested in related digital infrastructure and have managed end-to-end network management, international connectivity and also effective in the use of spectrum in service network, he said.
Representatives from the ministry and related agencies would also be invited to the sessions.
Saifuddin said the approach was important to enable MCMC to devise a swift and comprehensive action plan so that it could be implemented in line with the new requirements.
“I’m aware that there are many other licensed distributors and stakeholders who can help to identify and propose solutions for these matters. As such, I welcome them to forward suggestions to MCMC,” he said.
Saifuddin is confident that the new approach could generate positive ideas for the nation, in terms of coverage, broadband access and quality of service, as well as a better facilitator for the people’s benefit.
“To ensure its success, I will monitor the workshop’s progress from time to time,” he said. — Bernama
