By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Nov 23: The construction of six more new telecommunication towers has been planned for Kalaka constituency and the towers are expected to be in operation by the fourth quarter of 2023.
Deputy Minister of Telecommunication Datuk Liwan Lagang said that the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government will certainly be fair in ensuring all areas in Sarawak have sufficient numbers of telecom towers.
“One telecom tower has been completed in Sungai Engkabang, Roban and is expected to be in operation in the first quarter of 2023.
“In Kalaka’s Taman Seroja, a completed telecom tower is currently under equipment installation and expected to be operational by end of January 2023, while for Taman Malor, equipment is expected to be delivered by mid-January next year and operation is expected latest by end of February 2023,” he told the august House today when responding to Kalaka assemblyman Mohamad Duri.
The initiatives implemented by the Sarawak government to expand telecommunication networks coverage, he continued, include upgrading 18 telecom sites from 3G to 4G transmissions, while fiber optics coverage for 450 premises was completed in the first quarter of this year.
Liwan also disclosed that some 7,000 telecom towers are needed to ensure full network coverage across the entire Sarawak including in rural areas.
“Currently, a total of 3,471 telecommunication structures are up in Sarawak. Of the figure, 2,186 towers are in operation while 285 towers are expected to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2023,” he explained.
In addition, some 600 telecom towers under Sarawak Multimedia Authority Rural Telecommunication (SMART) project and 742 new towers under National Digital Network Plan (Jendela) are scheduled to be operational in phases starting 2023.
Under the SMART project, he said, 600 telecom towers will be rolled out in rural areas of Sarawak with the first phase scheduled for operation in the second quarter of 2023 while phase 2 will be up by the end of 2023.
“The federal government is also implementing 742 telecom towers under the Jendela initiative which is managed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) starting this year.
“Currently, a total of 40 towers are in operation while civil construction work in 68 telecom sites have been completed and now entering transmitter equipment and electricity installation stage,” he said.
All 742 new telecom towers under Jendela are expected to be operational in stages by the fourth quarter of 2023. — DayakDaily
