The New Straits Time

KUALA LUMPUR, Mon.:

Malaysia recorded a penetration rate of 21.1 per cent in household broadband last year, surpassing the target of 20 per cent that had been set under the National Broadband Implementation Plan, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communications Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum said the plan had set a target of 50 per cent rate in household broadband penetration in 2010.

“The government is constantly monitoring so that the objective of achieving the last mile access, as set by the plan, is achieved,” he said in response to a question from Datuk Seri Azmi Awang (BN-Padang Besar) on the number of licences issued to communication companies.

Salang said the access to the broadband services was through fibre optic, copper line, third generation (3G), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (wimax).

As of last year, there were 52 license holders offering broadband servicesvia various technologies, he said.

“From these, only 14 companies were offering the services and had clients. The rest were offering the services but had no clients,” he said.

Among the companies offering broadband services are Telekom Malaysia Bhd which offers the service via wired technologies, while those offering wireless services are Celcom, Maxis, DiGi, U-Mobile, Redtone-CNX, Y-Max, Packet One and Asiapace.