The Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Gobind Singh Deo has recently tweeted that telcos in Malaysia have been given up until 30 September 2018 to submit new proposals for their plan to Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). This is part of the government’s effort to accelerate the implementation of faster Internet speed at a lower price for consumers.
The minister has also revealed that the original deadline for the submission was actually on 1 August 2018. However, certain telcos have actually applied for an extension of up to two years although the application for such a long delay has been rejected by the government.
Semua telco perlu kemukakan cadangan pakej baru ke SKMM sebelum 31 Ogos. Permohonan dibuat utk lanjutan masa 2 thn. Kita tolak. Lanjutan diberi kpd 30 Sept. Ini krn SST dilaksana pd 1 Sept dan perlu selesaikan isu2 tertentu spt prepaid dulu. Tiada lanjutan masa lagi diberikan.
— GobindSinghDeo 🇲🇾 (@GobindSinghDeo) September 16, 2018
Instead, the new deadline has been set to 30 September in consideration of the SST implementation which affects certain products such as prepaid offerings. Gobind has assured that no more deadline extension will be provided to the telcos.
When the minister announced that the price of broadband is expected to go down by at least 25% within 2018, it indeed seems like a tall order especially given how some companies have been enjoying their dominance over the market for so long. Let’s see if this will finally change the course of things.
