In principle, I agree with Port Dickson member of parliament and "prime minister in-waiting" , Y.B. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on the need for Malaysia to do more to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural Internet users, the need to learn from the experiences in India and China to expand access to information and communications technology to a wider community, rather than look towards the experience of cities in the affluent advanced countries. Also, the need to prioritise the welfare of humanity over technological advancement which was taking place at lightning speed, as per reported in The Star of 5 March 2019 below.
Malaysia has already made commendable progress in making Internet access available to Malaysians, either via fixed fibre and ADSL broadband, and mostly via cellular mobile broadband and recent efforts to make broadband access more affordable by our Communications and Multimedia Minister, Y.B. Gobind Singh Deo.
However, there is much more to Internet access and affordability. A more important question more relevant to what Datuk seri Anwar wants is what are users using their broadband Internet access for and how many are using it for useful and productive purposes. Well, we shall know further down.
According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission's (MCMC's) Internet Users Survey 2018 report, Malaysia's Internet penetration in 2018 stood at 87.4%, up 10.5% percentage points from 76.9% in 2016. Over the same period, the number of Internet users in Malaysia stood at around 28.7 million in 2018, up from 24.5 million in 2016.
"The upsurge in the number of Internet users in the country was mainly driven by the growth in mobile broadband segment, with wider access to 3G and 4G/LTE network coverage, improved network quality, as well as innovative and competitive new data plans and promotions by mobile service providers. Furthermore, there was similar observation across the globe, where the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) cited that swift advancement of mobile network and mobile devices capabilities has contributed to a more effective Internet access".
However, there remains an issue with the 12.6% who still are non-Internet users, especially the age profile, as per Figure 1 from the MCMC's report below:-
(If you cannot view the image below, please enable 'view images' in your e-mail client)
You can also view and download the MCMC's report in full via the link below.
So Malaysia's Internet penetration is already pretty commendable and thanks must go to the late Tun Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, Minister of Energy, Water and Communications from 27 March 2004 to 18 March 2008, his successors Dato' Seri Shaziman Abu Mansor (18 March 2008 – 9 April 2009) and Tan Sri Dato' Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui (10 April 2009 – 15 May 2013), who during their respective tenures in the portfolio, helped to drive Malaysia's broadband penetration to 53% in October 2010, exceeding Malaysia's goal of 50% by the end of 2010.
Figure 5 of the MCMC's report (not included here) shows that 93.1% of users access the Internet on their smartphones and from my own experience, I know even wealthy urban people younger that myself (I'm almost 65), who know how to access social media on their smartphones backwards but do not even know how to check e-mail on their PC, do a simple Google search or write a simple letter even if their lives depended on it, let alone use e-government services such as even to download and print out a form, to file their tax returns online, do Internet banking or participate in e-commerce.
Some of these more involved online activities need more than a smartphone to perform comfortably and 44.2% of users access the Internet on netbook, notebook or laptop PCs, whilst 28.1% do so on a desktop PC.
I'm proud to say that I'm amongst the 28.1% who mostly access the Internet on a desktop PC, despite me having an Android smartphone an Apple iPad, two working notebook PCs and eight working desktop PCs, including two which I use daily, whilst the rest I use to playing around and experiment. All my notebook and desktop PCs run Linux and I'm writing this on an around 10 year old refurbished, used desktop PC running Linux.
Some, especially marketing and ICT media types, may say that I'm running a "dinosaur". Well I'll continue to use this "dinosaur" until it breaks down, rather than fall for the consumer IT industry marketing and advertising hype and spend my hard earned money running like a hamster on a treadmill after the "latest" and "greatest" version of technology which is released minor incremental improvements about every three months, or as frequently as my neighbourhood stray cats gives birth to a litters of kittens.
Figure 6 of the MCMC's report says it all, with 16.9% of Internet activity being to sell goods and services online - i.e. e-commerce, whilst a mere 9.6% of Internet activity is to maintain blogs and home pages.
Ouch! I did not realise that I'm so "old fashioned" and am amongst the tiny 6.9% who still blog for personal commentaries and have maintained web pages in line of work.
Check out my three most active blogs below:-
I'm pretty sure that from my blogs above, Y.B. Gobind Singh will know the real identity of this rascal IT.Scheiss
If you Right Honourable still can't figure out my real identity, here's another of my blogs (long dormant) which might help.
And yes, I'm also amongst the 61.9% who access the Internet for work.
According to the MCMC's report:-
"As much as 96.5% used Internet for texting via over-the-top (OTT) messaging platform, while the use of Internet telephony (whether by voice or videocalls) was on the rise, reaching up to 60.6% as compared to 32.0% in 2016. Apart from texting and Internet telephony, social networking was also common amongst Internet users (85.6%)"
Now "texting via over-the-top (OTT) messaging platform" means messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and to a lesser extent WeChat (in Malaysia), mostly accessed on smartphones and I've found that even people who have PCs and are savvy with using productivity applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation graphics, e-mail and web browser on PCs, however become rather limited in their ability or are too lazy to search for information to verify the authenticity of messages or news forwarded to them via an OTT messaging app, so instead believe even fake news forwarded to them virally, which they blindly forward to others without much thought.
Quite frankly, a smartphone screen, however big, is still a limited space which discourages opening of several browser windows and applications to perform more involved searches on, unlike a the 1920 x 1080 pixels flatscreen displays used with PCs. I too find my smartphone screen rather limiting in what I can do on it, which is why I much prefer to use a PC, including for WhatsApp messaging in a web browser through WhatsApp Web
So Datuk Seri Anwar and Y.B. Gobind Singh, if you want more Malaysians, especially the lower income group to be able to use the Internet for more productive applications such as to market their products online, apply for jobs and so forth, you'll have to do much more than provide them with more extensive and affordable broadband access.
For starters, you'll have to get more people accustomed with using PCs, whether desktops or notebooks (and preferably running Linux to save on software costs), and teach them how to search the Internet for information, conduct e-commerce, do Internet banking, set up blogs, websites or Facebook pages to promote their products, use e-mail, WhatsApp Web and so forth.
Anyway. entry-level notebook and desktop PCs are about the price of a mid-range smartphone, with new branded notebook prices ranging from around RM850 to around RM1,100, whilst new branded desktop PCs are going for between RM1,100 to RM1.400.
Whilst I would not recommend second hand notebook PCs, however refurbished, used branded desktop PC sets and be bought for around RM500 or less, inclusive of PC, monitor, keyboard and mouse from used PC retailers. The PC I'm using to write this on is a refurbished, used Dell Optiplex 755 Small Form Factor with a Core2Duo processor which I bought for around RM350 (without monitor) some years back and which costs around RM280 today.
Most of these used branded PCs are disposed of by banks, corporations and government offices in their fixed asset refresh and having been used in an office environment, they generally still are in a decent condition. All but one of my notebook PCs and one of my desktop PCs were bought brand new, the rest were bought refurbished used.
As part of its initiatives to enable computer use and Internet access amongst rural communities, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has financed Pusat Jalurlebar Komuniti (Community Broadband Centres) out of the MCMC's Universal Service Provision (USP) Fund, such as the Community Broadband Centre in FELDA Chini 1, Pahang, featured in the article below from the MCMC's in-house magazine, .myConvergence back in 2009.
Later volumes of the MCMC's myConvergence magazine can be downloaded from here:-
Perhaps your "more people-friendly", "New Malaysia" government may want to set up more of these Community Broadband Centres, a.k.a. Telecenters in lower income communities in rural as well as lower-income urban neighbourhoods across Malaysia, using refurbished, used PCs (and running Linux hopefully).
Just make sure that these centres are professionally managed and supervised like the one in FELDA Chini 1, so that the facilities in them are used productively for work and study, and not misused to access pornography, for frivolous social media access, to play computer games, engage in online gambling and so forth.
Also, the Ministry of Education should consider equipping schools with more PCs and computer labs with refurbished used PCs for students to learn and practice AI (artificial intelligence) and software coding on.
Otherwise, all this talk about including AI and software coding into Malaysian school curriculum will end up like 1Bestarinet.
"Teachers' union says 1BestariNet useless for online learning from home"
Hopefully, this will help you include the "digital have-nots" in Digital Native Agenda 23 (Whatever that fancy, grandiose-sounding term means).
The Star's article referred to follows below:-
PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says for the country to become a digital economy powerhouse, "digital have-nots" must be included in the agenda.
He said the digital gap would not exist if efforts were made to democratise technology.
The digital gap is a term to describe a divide between those who have easy access to technological tools and those who do not.
Speaking at the Digital Native Agenda 23 (DNA23) launch at the All Asia Broadcast Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday, Anwar said he had seen efforts to bridge the digital gap with applications that catered to those in the lower-income group.
"I will not share this concern of an increasing (digital) gap if the government and companies involved embark on a reform," he said.
DNA 23 is aimed at recognising challenges and seizing opportunities in the digital world.
Access to technology, Anwar said, could enhance the income and living conditions of rural folk, some of whom relied on selling local items as a source of income.
"For example, the Rungus community in Sabah uses technology to introduce their beadwork to a larger international community," the PKR president said.
He cautioned that ignoring segments of society, especially those living in rural areas, would only invite a backlash.
In order to expand access to technology to a wider community, Anwar said the industry should be looking at efforts undertaken in parts of India and China instead of looking at more developed cities like New York.
Anwar also said although technological advancement was occurring at lightning speed, the welfare of humanity must be prioritised.
Also at the event was Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, who shared tips on how his ministry could enhance the national digital economy.
He said the digital economy contributed to 18.3%, or RM247.1bil, of the national economy in 2017, adding it was expected to rise to 20% next year.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/03/05/include-digital-havenots-anwar-effort-to-democratise-technology-must-be-on-the-agenda/
On another note Y.B. Govind Singh, 5G is a a set of mobile broadband specifications and standards from the 3G Partnership Project (3Gpp), not Huawei.
http://www.3gpp.org/
About the 3Gpp
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites [Seven] telecommunications standard development organizations (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC), known as "Organizational Partners" and provides their members with a stable environment to produce the Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP technologies.
The project covers cellular telecommunications network technologies, including radio access, the core transport network, and service capabilities - including work on codecs, security, quality of service - and thus provides complete system specifications. The specifications also provide hooks for non-radio access to the core network, and for interworking with Wi-Fi networks.
3GPP specifications and studies are contribution-driven, by member companies, in Working Groups and at the Technical Specification Group level.
The three Technical Specification Groups (TSG) in 3GPP are;
Radio Access Networks (RAN),
Services & Systems Aspects (SA),
Core Network & Terminals (CT)
The Working Groups, within the TSGs, meet regularly and come together for their quarterly TSG Plenary meeting, where their work is presented for information, discussion and approval.
Each TSG has a particular area of responsibility for the Reports and Specifications within its own Terms of Reference (Details available in the Specification Groups pages).
The last meeting of the cycle of Plenary meetings is TSG SA, which also has responsibility for the overall coordination of work and for the monitoring of its progress.
http://www.3gpp.org/about-3gpp/about-3gpp
As a telecommunications equipment and systems developer, manufacturer and supplier, Huawei may have contributed significantly to the 3Gpp's 5G specifications and standards but 5G is not exclusively Huawei's technology.
"MCMC still studying Huawei technology: Gobind"
https://www.thesundaily.my/local/mcmc-still-studying-huawei-technology-gobind-FK639153
I'm pretty sure that you are fully aware of the geo-strategic antagonism against China by the U.S. imperialists under President Donald Trump and other U.S. imperialist poodle countries, so please don't fall for the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) created and dispersed widely online and on social media by U.S. imperialist propagandists.
Basically, don't fall for their 5G scheiss.
Yours most truly
IT.Scheiss
http://itsheiss.blogspot.com/
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