Is Malaysia set to embrace a wireless broadband era?

Malaysia has a national vision of moving towards a knowledge-based society and economy. To achieve this, the government talked of aims to focus on expanding the communications network to ensure more equitable access to information and services during the International Conference on Business IT 2006. The country recognised that one of the ways to achieve the above is to increase the nation’s broadband penetration.

Malaysia seems to be set on the right track as its penetration rate for its high-speed internet rose to 3.3 percent in 2006 as companies such as Telekom Malaysia introduced new services. Broadband connections reached 879,200 last year, surpassing the forecasted 700,000 users, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission reported.

In 2005, the proportion of the population using high-speed Internet services was 1.9 percent, well behind other Asian countries and regions such as Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, which have double-digit penetration rates. However, TM's promotion of its broadband services has been a success. Abdul Wahid Omar, CEO of Telekom Malaysia said TM will increase the number of ports to widen the availability of its Streamyx service.

From its current broadband penetration of less than 10 percent, is Malaysia well on its way to reach its aim of reaching a 50 percent broadband penetration by 2008, as targeted by the government? Does Malaysia still have a long way to go before catching up in wireless broadband industry? Can Malaysia achieve its aim of delivering high speed broadband services to aid the development of a knowledge-based society and economy?