THE federal government, in collaboration with mobile service providers, will share the operational costs of telecommunication towers under the Sarawak Multimedia Authority Rural Telecommunication (SMART) project, amounting to RM207 million.
Minister of Utility and Telecommunication, Datuk Seri Julaihi Narawi lamented that mobile service providers showed limited interest in offering their services on SMART towers due to restricted commercial returns.
He said the Sarawak government thus engaged in several discussions with the federal government to ensure the functionality of all SMART towers.
“As a result of these discussions, the federal government, in collaboration with main mobile service providers, has reached an agreement to share the estimated operational cost of RM207 million.
“This cost covers a three-year period, from 2024 to 2026. After this period, the primary mobile service providers will bear the full operational costs of all these towers,” he said.
He said this during his ministerial winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here today (Nov 27).
The Sarawak government has implemented intervention programmes, allocating RM1.89 billion under the Sarawak Linking Urban, Rural, and Nation (SALURAN) initiative to accelerate the expansion of telecommunication services in rural Sarawak.
Projects under SALURAN include the construction of 600 new telecommunication towers in rural areas, known as the SMART project.
As such, Julaihi asserted that the current internet service coverage in Sarawak’s settlement areas is 76.3 per cent.
“As of now, 4,217 telecommunication towers, equivalent to 60.2 per cent, are operational compared to 3,708 telecommunication towers, or 52.9 per cent, as reported in the previous DUN session,” he added.
He assured that the Sarawak government, through the SALURAN initiative, and the federal government, through the National Digital Network Plan (JENDELA) initiative, will continue efforts to expand and enhance telecommunication coverage in Sarawak.
