By Natasha Jee & Annabell Naja Tommy
KUCHING: The establishment of the Batam Sarawak Internet Cable System (BaSICS) and the Tier IV Data Centre here is expected to attract more local and overseas investors to Sarawak.
Utility and Telecommunication Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi hoped the development will help the state achieve its target of a high income status by 2030.
“I understand this establishment (BaSICS and Tier IV Data Centre) will be an opportunity for other players in the industry to capitalise on what has been provided by the data centre.
“And I would like to encourage the industry players and businesses, especially among Internet providers and mobile operators to capitalise on the infrastructure provided to join forces in meeting the needs the underserved rural areas in Sarawak,” he said in a press conference after the launching of the BaSICS and the Tier IV Data Centre at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on today.
For Sarawak to become a high-income and developed state by 2030, he said, there is a need for the state to be fully connected.
“But the hindrance which we face currently is due to connectivity.
“We do appreciate Internet providers providing Internet connectivity in Sarawak. However, the focus is more on urban and city areas leaving rural areas not fully served to have Internet connectivity, and thus that might deprive the rural areas of keeping pace with the ambition to be fast enough.
“Therefore, I hope those involved will see that this is an opportunity for them to extend their service across the state especially in the rural areas,” he stressed.
Julaihi also hoped with the Tier IV Data Centre, it will attract more submarine cable systems to land in Malaysia.
“I would like to see that with the establishment of this data centre, Sarawak will be the preferred destination of our international submarine cable system in the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, PP Telecommunication Sdn Bhd (PPTEL) chief executive officer Dr Jonathan Smith said BaSICS is a 700km-long submarine cable connecting Sarawak to the regional telco hub of Singapore via Batam in Indonesia.
He said it consisted of six fibre pairs with 80 wavelengths of 100 Gbps transmission capacity.
“This cable system is the first step in our vision to make Sarawak a viable option as a regional data hub alongside established players and significantly reduces the latency, or round-trip delay time, between Kuching and Singapore,” he said.
Smith also said the data centre, located at Santubong 1 near here was already in operation and provided the landing point for BaSICS into Sarawak.
Kuching-based PPTEL, under its new corporate brand identity, irix, began with the desire to connect Sarawak to the world.
Later at the event, Julaihi also witnessed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between PPTEL and Sarawak Information System Sdn Bhd (SAINS) for collaboration in infrastructure areas.
