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12th September, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR: High Speed Broadband Technology Sdn Bhd, a Pahang state-backed company, plans to submit a proposal to the government soon to develop an alternative open access high-speed broadband network.
This would be a separate deal from Telekom Malaysia’s RM11.3 billion high speed broadband project.
HSBT expects to complete the proposal by the end of this month and thereafter make a presentation to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“The proposal will be completed by the end of this month and I will bring a team to present it to him (Najib) as soon as possible,” Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob, told a media briefing yesterday.
Najib chairs the Cabinet Committee for Broadband.
Adnan said the company was keen to apply for the license to operate the broadband network.
HSBT chairman Datuk Mohd Sharkar Shamsudin, said this would be a separate deal from Telekom Malaysia’s RM11.3 billion high speed broadband (HSBB) project for which it received a letter of award (LOA) from the government on Sept 2.
HSBT is a special-purpose vehicle, jointly owned by a unit of the state government, Pahang Technology Resources Sdn Bhd and Bumiraya Resources Sdn Bhd, which is privately-owned by several Malaysian technopreneurs.
On August 29, HSBT missed a one-week deadline given to the company by the Cabinet Committee to submit a detailed proposal to build and run an independent HSBB.
As a result, it was submitting a proposal for a separate project.
Its technical and corporate strategy director, Shukor Ahmed, said that the company’s business model would entail it spending RM10.5 billion in capital expenditure over the next five years to provide the HSBB network nationwide.
He said that JALENAS or Jalur Lebar Nasional, would provide other options for consumers to tap into high-speed broadband services.
“We will use about RM3-RM4 billion to roll out the initial stage. It will be the most critical two years for us.
Eventually, we will use internal funds that will start to come in after that,” he said.
He also expects the company’s bottomline to be profitable after four to five years of operations.
HSBT would depend on revenue sharing with service providers to generate returns, Shukor added.
HSBT, set to team up with technology partners from Japan, South Korea and Sweden, would provide network and backbone infrastructure for service providers and consumers, he said.
He said that JALENAS would cover 2.5 million households, but not necessarily urban areas as it would also include suburban and rural areas.
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