Aside from the announcement of RM 100 digital voucher for domestic tourism as part of the 2020 Economic Stimulus Package, the Interim Prime Minister has also revealed that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will also invest RM 3 billion into the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP).
Today, MCMC has issued a media release which shed more lights on what the RM 3 billion funding brings to the table. As it turns out, the RM 3 billion actually came from the Universal Service Provision (USP) Fund and it will be used for six NFCP infrastructure packages.
Prior to this, details regarding NFCP 1, NFCP 2, and NFCP 3 packages have been publicly released but this announcement marked the first time that MCMC has provide a look into the NFCP 4, NFCP 5, and NFCP 6 packages. According to the announcement by MCMC, the NFCP 4 will bring connectivity to 151 Orang Asli settlements and the organization aims to issue the project’s Request For Proposal (RFP) document within the second quarter of this year.
To us, the most interesting project in list would be the NFCP 5 package which involved the infrastructure upgrade from copper to fibre. To be run by TM, the project will involve 377,360 subscribers and will take place within this quarter.
Meanwhile, there is also the NFCP 6 package which sounds a little bit more general as it involved the roll out of network facilities and services for public cellular services at around 740 locations throughout the country. The RFP document for this project will be issued in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Given that these NFCP packages are still in their early phase of deployment, we expect MCMC to talk more about them very soon. So, stay tuned.
(Source: MCMC.)
