This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 6, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo has called on local telecommunications companies (telcos) to support the Malaysian government in its effort to reduce the prices and increase the speed of broadband services.

“I’m glad that we see now an effort on the part of the telcos, but I think more focus must be given on quality. Apart from Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), there are other telcos and other companies that need to come forward to show us how they too can support our call,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Wild Digital tech conference here yesterday.

TM had recently announced that it would introduce a new entry-level unifi package of 30Mbps for less than RM100 a month. However, the telecommunications service provider also said that there was no official directive from the ministry on lowering broadband prices.

Gobind said that he has already had individual meetings with several major telcos.

“A lot of them have been very cooperative. They have put forward a lot of very good ideas, but as far as I’m concerned, we need to see results.

“We must make sure that while we discuss things, we [also] deliver, that these discussions do not just remain discussions,” he said.

Gobind earlier yesterday tweeted that broadband services in the country must be of high standard and on a par with services provided by other companies in the world. He had previously said that Malaysians should be able to look forward to at least a 25% drop in broadband prices by the end of the year following implementation of the Mandatory Standard on Access Pricing by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission on June 8.

“I’ve received many complaints about broadband services and their weaknesses. To me, it’s quite simple. We have telcos in this industry; I am asking all of them to work with me,” he said.

“This is not for the good of the government alone. It is important for all Malaysians because I have continuously emphasised [that] access to the Internet is very important,” Gobind added.

Apart from striving to make access to the Internet a basic human right, the minister also emphasised that it is important that the quality of services provided is up to the mark.

“At the end of the day, we have to make sure that we improve on quality of the services and that people are happy with the services provided by all these companies,” he said.