In a joint announcement to Bursa Malaysia earlier today, Telekom Malaysia (TM) and Tenaga Nasional (TNB) have stated that both companies have decided not to continue its collaboration for the Nationwide Fiberisation Plan (NFP). The reason behind the cancellation was not detailed by either of these companies but nevertheless, the announcement stated that the decision has been “mutually agreed” by both of them.
The collaboration was originally announced back in January, not long after the rumor of their intention to work together for NFP begin to appear. TNB has a rather significant role in NFP as the government is looking to tap into the power company’s extensive fiber network which runs through its transmission lines and main substations.
The collaboration was seen as a good move by both companies as not only TNB finally able to fully utilize the fiber network but TM’s vast experience with massive scale Internet infrastructure deployment could help strengthen NFP. At the same time, TNB would be able to offset the cost of the project which is estimated to be around RM 10 billion.
Now that the collaboration is off, we also wonder about the status of NFP itself. Said to take place between 2017 and 2019, it might be affected by the government switch that happened earlier this year. If that’s indeed the case, we hope that the impact would be positive despite what happened to TM-TNB collaboration.
