TM Targets to Provide More Premises in Iskandar With HSBB

Tuesday February 22, 2011
By ZAZALI MUSA
zaza@thestar.com.my


JOHOR BARU: Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) plans to increase the number of premises which have access to its UniFi high-speed broadband (HSBB) service in Iskandar Malaysia this year.

Johor TM general manager Mohd Roslan Mohd Rashidi said it was looking to achieve 45,000 commercial and residential premises connected with the services by year-end from 4,500 premises now.

He said the areas of coverage would be extended from three presently to five more zones to offer wider coverage for the HSBB connectivity within Iskandar Malaysia for its customers.

The five new zones are the Johor Baru Central, Pelangi, Pasir Gudang, Skudai and Tampoi areas while the existing areas are Nusajaya, Permas Jaya and Senai.


“Last year was the pre-introduction of the services for our potential customers in Iskandar and this year we are going on the ground to push the services to them,'' Mohd Roslan told StarBiz yesterday.

He was speaking after signing a HSBB service agreement with United Malaysia Land Bhd's (UM Land) wholly-owned subsidiary Seri Alam Properties Sdn Bhd acting head Frankie Tan Kiat How for its project in Pasir Gudang.

The event was witnessed by Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed and UM Land group chief executive officer Pee Tong Lim.

Last year, TM signed similar agreements with Mudra Tropika Sdn Bhd for its housing scheme in Jalan Kolam Ayer, Johor Baru and Dynasty View Sdn Bhd for its Seri Austin project in Tebrau corridor.

“We are going to sign with 15 more developers in Iskandar Malaysia for similar services this year,'' added Mohd Roslan.

He said the company preferred to sign with developers to provide and install the HSBB connectivity for their new residential and commercial launches rather than having the system installed at the completed properties.

However, Mohd Roslan said it would not totally ignore the brown field area. The company would be selective in offering the service to such areas as it involved high cost of laying down fibre-optic cables compared to green field areas.

He said one area which required careful planning was the RM1.8bil Johor Baru city centre transformation project, where the masterplan to be unveiled in the second-quarter of the year would involve the redevelopment of Johor Baru into a vibrant city.

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