A village in Perak which resorted to placing cellular boosters on wooden poles to get Internet connectivity is slated to get a proper connection by September, according to the authorities.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) stated that upgrading works of a telecommunications tower belonging to Celcom – the closest one to the village in question, Kampung Sungai Samak, Bagan Datuk – would provide a short term solution to the villagers’ Internet woes.
Upgrading works are expected to be completed by September, the commission stated in a press statement.
There will also be a new tower constructed by Maxis, slated for completion by April 2022, to be built as per the National Digital Network (Jendela) plan.
MCMC stated it visited the village to meet with representatives from the telcos and Kampung Sungai Samak village chief Ahmad Hilmi Yunus, following a report about the extraordinary measures taken by the villagers to get online.
A local media report stated that villagers were attaching signal boosters to poles, some as high as 40 feet (12 metres), in order to get a signal in the face of weak Internet connection in the area.
Ahmad Hilmi said in the article that the pandemic made the poor connectivity a bigger problem as the local children could not follow their home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) classes. He added that the devices were expensive and could break easily as the poles sometimes snapped in strong winds.
In the press statement, MCMC suggested that as an interim measure the children could go to the nearby Community Internet Centre located about 2.5km from Kampung Sungai Samak, once the movement control order (MCO) was relaxed.
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