KUCHING, 19 November, 2020 – The Sarawak Multimedia Authority notes with deep concern the great efforts the school children in Nanga Sumpa and Nanga Jambu in Lubok Antu had to go through to get good internet coverage in order to keep up with their education.

The Authority is fully aware of our state connectivity issues which was made worse by COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently the respective movement control orders.

Whilst the strategic action plan to construct telecommunication towers in noncommercial viable areas is an on-going process, the Authority has already put in place interim solutions to resolve connectivity issue as highlighted. It shall be noted that the mandated procedures will be complied with before rolling out the solutions.

Hence, the Saluran 200 plan will see the deployment Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) to targeted areas so that school children in rural areas will get minimal disruption to their education.

The Sarawak Multimedia Authority Rural Transformation (SMART) initiatives seek to expand telecommunication coverage to rural Sarawak. SMART is one of the state’s intervention efforts to reduce socio-economic divide of our rural communities. The construction of the first three hundred telecommunication towers is now at 67% completion.