Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 19, 2015.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Internet traffic surged 60% in the first six months of 2015 versus the same period last year, in line with the doubling of household broadband penetration to 70.2% as of the first quarter of 2015 from 31.7% in 2009, the Malaysia Internet Exchange (MyIX) said.

As of June 30, the Internet traffic was recorded at 98,589 megabits per second (Mbps), compared with 61,771Mbps a year ago. Mbps refers to the amount of data being transferred over the Internet at one time.

“The drastic increase in Internet traffic over the last few years is in synch with the growth rate of broadband users in Malaysia. As of 2014, there were a total of 20.7 million broadband subscribers, with 85% consisting of mobile broadband subscribers,” said MyIX chairman Chiew Kok Hin in a statement yesterday.

MyIX is an initiative under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Chiew said Malaysia’s household broadband penetration rate had exceeded the global target for a developing nation of 40% by 2015.

He added that the growth of the country’s Internet traffic also corresponds with the mobile penetration rate. MyIX pointed to a survey by the MCMC, which showed there were 36 million phone subscribers in Malaysia in 2011. This figure rose to 45 million by the end of 2014, increasing the mobile penetration rate to 148.5%.

It said the introduction of the MCMC’s Youth Communication Package in 2012 had helped to increase nationwide phone subscribers by 25%.

Chiew said Malaysia faces geographical challenges when it comes to infrastructure upgrades.

“With Sabah and Sarawak being across the South China Sea, the cost of connecting these two states increases tremendously ,” he said.

The government had announced the allocation of RM1.2 billion in Budget 2016 to increase rural broadband speed from 5Mbps to 20Mbps.

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