As expected, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has responded to the statement that YTL Communications (YTL) has made regarding 1Bestarinet earlier this week. Naturally, there were quite a number of interesting points within the statement which has provided some light on the project.
First and foremost, MoE clarified that 1Bestarinet’s contract was not terminated prematurely but has reached the end of its tenure on 30 June 2019. According to the ministry, the original contract started back on 13 December 2011 until 30 June 2016.
Throughout this particular phase, which was referred to as 1Bestarinet Phase 1, the contract has actually been renewed seven times. As for the second phase of 1Bestarinet, it took place from 1 July 2016 until 30 June 2019.
MoE has also clarified that it has chosen to appoint TM, Celcom, and Maxis as interim ISPs due to the coverage that these companies able to provide. The decision was made after the said meeting which YTL has mentioned in its statement earlier this week and has received approvals from the Ministry of Finance.
As for the free Internet claim made by YTL, MoE stated that the ministry has responded back by providing certain terms to the company. Ultimately, it has decided not to accept YTL’s offer as the ministry believed that it has a strong foundation to do so although it was not clarified in today’s statement.
Through the same statement, MoE has also announced that the ministry has allowed YTL to continue utilizing its transmission towers within school areas throughout the country. However, this permission will expire on 30 September 2019 and also depends on several other terms that the company must agree. Once again, these terms were also not clarified by MoE in its statement though.
All in all, it looks like not only that MoE has denied YTL’s allegations but has also thrown an ultimatum towards the company’s transmission towers. Given the severity of the request, we expect another round of response from YTL very soon.
(Source: Ministry of Education. Images: Ministry of Education // Nur Zueraisha Qistina.)
