KUCHING: The state government has been urged to introduce a well-researched and developed master plan to introduce 5G technology throughout the state, be it in urban or rural areas.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak vice-chairman Roland Engan said the party applauded Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg for his positive attitude towards the introduction of 5G cellular network in Sarawak.
“As for PKR, we understand the introduction of 5G is inevitable. It ensures all communities throughout Sarawak to be well connected, which eventually expedite the process of transformation of the entire society.
“Be that as it may, its application and implementation should be well regulated to ensure personal data protection, community data protection and biodiversity data protection to avoid unnecessary abuse of data and information,” he said in a statement on Monday (Aug 17).
He said the vulnerable rural communities who wanted to maintain their heritage, customs and rights should always be protected from such abuse.
“Therefore, a special state law should be legislated on this matter by the state government soonest possible.”
Roland also said moving forward to introduce 5G throughout the city and urban area only would certainly broaden the development gap between the urban and rural areas.
“However, waiting for physical infrastructure development such as road linking all rural communities as the precondition on the introduction of 5G will cause the rural communities to be further left behind.”
Which was why, he said, a master plan for the introduction of 5G was needed.
On Aug 14, Abang Johari said Sarawak was preparing to install 5G infrastructure starting in urban areas statewide with the launch of a 5G test bed.
He said the infrastructure was expected to be in place in the next 10 years.
Abang Johari emphasised that Sarawak, in its aim of becoming a developed state, could not be left behind in technology, which would dominate all economics sectors in the future.
