Offer better incentives to widen internet access: IDC
Published on: Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Kuala Lumpur: The country can speed up the process of achieving a wider Internet access by providing better incentives and friendlier policies to attract foreign investors to participate in the broadband space and build up a network across the country, said International Data Corporation (IDC) Asean Managing Director Sudev Bangah."From that standpoint, it is good for Malaysia if there are a lot of telecommunication companies (telcos) in the market and the telecom industry will start to grow further," he told reporters during an IDC media luncheon on Tuesday.He noted that Indonesia had taken the initiative to offer incentives to international players to roll out telecommunication infrastructure in that country.
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"The government and (international) telcos should discuss, for instance, over the next 10 years, how much money are you (the telcos) investing in the country and, as a result, what can I (the government) do for you, (either in terms of) tax incentives or any form of a special lease rate for land (for infrastructure)," he said.Sudev stressed that the main factors that gave Malaysia an advantage were government policies as well as government support for the industries."It has never been about the population base, because if we look at Southeast Asian countries by population size and size of infrastructure expenditure, the Philippines has roughly about 100 million people, Manila alone has between 10 million and 15 million consumers. Indonesia and Greater Jakarta have a large base of consumers," he said.According to Sudev, local players' capabilities in investing in the country's infrastructure is limited due to the size of their revenue base.
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"The problem in Malaysia—when you talk about Telekom Malaysia, Maxis Bhd and Time dotCom—is that the service providers' fund for investment is limited because the country is not as huge as Indonesia in terms of number of consumers," he said. Sudev suggested a collaborative model between the government and the local private sector as one of the solutions to expand the Internet coverage and lower broadband prices.
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He said the telcos and the government should sit together and talk about the solution, so that the companies could pour in investments without jeopardising their financial position."For instance, if you expect me to invest in the next-generation network over the next five years and it will cost me a certain amount of money but I can expect little returns, that is not doable," he said, adding that while broadband price reduction and a wider network were important, the sustainability of these telcos was equally important.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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