Taking place from 2019 to 2023, the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) aims to improve the state of connectivity in Malaysia which is being seen as a key driver behind our economy. A major part of the plan is a series of infrastructure deployment which include the NFCP 1 and NFCP 2 packages that we’ve reported earlier.
While NFCP 1 and NFCP 2 are focusing on 4G mobile services, there is also the NFCP 3 package which involved the rollout of fibre broadband. According to the its Request for Proposal (RFP) document on the official website of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, NFCP 3 will cover 100,000 premises in 11 states:
As for its implementation, the fibre access network must be able to support a minimum speed of 500Mbps according to the RFP. When it comes to end-user service though, the minimum speed that consumers can obtained through the network need to be at least 30Mbps.
In other words, the fibre network can deliver at least 500Mbps but the actual speed that users are able to experience depends on the broadband plan that they subscribe later. The RFP document further pointed out that the NFCP 3 implementation should not take more than 18 months although no actual starting date was mentioned in it as well as the total cost of the project which will be funded by the Universal Service Provision Fund.
Meanwhile, companies that are interested to pursue the NFCP 3 project have until 27 March to inform MCMC of their interest while the deadline to submit the draft plan is 12 May. So, in general, it is going to be a while before we can see the fruit of the NFCP 3 implementation since the tender process for the project has just started.
