M'sia Tops Affordable Internet Ranking Among Developing Nations - Deputy Comm & Multimedia Minister

KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is ranked first for affordable Internet among developing countries, the Dewan Negara (Senate) was told Thursday. Deputy Communication and Multimedia Minister Jailani Johari said the ranking was issued in the Alliance for Affordable Internet's A For A One report dated November 8 last year. "This achievement is the result of the continuous effort by the government to expand Internet coverage through various programmes initiated by Prime Minister Najib Razak," he said. He said this commitment was further enhanced when the prime minister announced allocations totalling almost US$1.77 billion (RM5.8 billion) for this year for the purpose. Jailani said in implementing additional projects to further expand affordable Internet coverage, specifications and Internet capacity would be increased based on needs and changes in technology. Jailani said the ministry faced difficulty tracing fake account users as they used fake ID to defame, criticise and threaten other people. The government had launched the Smart Click programme to raise awareness and educate the community to be more responsible, ethical and cautious when surfing. He told Senator Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud the ministry via the MCMC always strive to enhance internet speed by improving the communications infrastructure. This was made via the National Broadband Plan 2010, a comprehensive plan aimed at raising broadband internet usage. "Via the plan, the MCMC managed to push household broadband penetration rate to 67.3 percent from 55.6 percent in 2010," he added. -- BERNAMA