The National Broadband Initiative was launched in Malaysia in 2010 to improve broadband access. [1] The document discusses an article that describes the initiative's goals of boosting Malaysia's socioeconomic development and GDP through high-speed broadband connectivity. [2] The article argues that broadband will benefit communities and businesses while attracting foreign investment, and the government aims to connect 50% of households by year's end. [3]

1. Article Review
Introduction.
The National Broadband Initiative was initiated by Malaysian Government in 2010.
Broadband refers to telecommunication that provides multiple channels of data over a single
communications medium, typically using some form of frequency or wave division multiplexing.
Broadband access is a vehicle that allows the delivery of an entirely new breed of media services
and communications-oriented applications. In the long run, it is these new services and
applications that will differentiate broadband from dial-up Internet access and give consumers a
reason for subscribing to broadband. In addition, Broadband will not replace traditional media
formats as they exist today. But it will emerge as a new source of fragmentation, siphoning off
enough listeners and viewers to affect established media entities and their long-term growth.
Article Review
1.0 An Overview of an Article
The article, ‘Broadband as engine of growth’ was published in New Straits Times
Newspaper, on 23 March 2010.
2.0 Article’s Objectives
The article was published in public newspaper with an intention to give further
clarifications and explanations to Malaysian, on the initiative, overall. Basically, the article was
written intelligently to describe the impact and revenue of National Broadband Initiative.
3.0 The Discussion
World have embarked on deploying broadband as an engine of growth. Malaysia is one
of the countries that have laid the foundation for a broadband economy. Thus, the Malaysian
Government believes, National Broadband Initiative (hereafter known as NBI) will be benefitting
both social and economic growth, overall. In the article, Prime Minister deems the initiative with a
tremendous improvement in economy segments and will resulted global competitive country’s
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2. Article Review
development and NBI will also connecting Malaysian Communities, to one and another. Future
more, with this initiative, Malaysian will step forward to world’s opportunities. By taking
advantage of NBI, Government assumes that Malaysian could improve their socio-economic
standing by being connected to a great connection of an Internet by transforming from a
traditional connection (dial up) to broadband connections. Furthermore, rural communities which
will be connected via Community Broadband Centers located throughout country will allow them
to gather information, especially on basic services at their fingertips instead of depending on
traditional information provided. In addition, NBI is expecting to bring real impact in the gross
domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP) with a growth on communications and
multimedia industry revenue. Government believes that, by achieving 50 percent household
broadband penetration rate by the end of the year should result a solid contribution in creating
new job from investment from foreign investors by enabling of knowledge based and innovation
driven economy. In addition, NBI will also generated a wide range of economic activities and
global brands benefitting both local small sized enterprise (SMEs), industries and business.
Meaning, SMEs companies will have further forecast to explore and reinvent traditional business
to a global business arena.
Thus, Prime Minister trusted NBI will provide high speed broadband to areas which
potentially with high economic activities and the target is to connect 50 percent of Malaysian
household to broadband by the end of the year. Under the initiative, the speed of 10 Mbps
(megabits per second) and above allocated for economic activity areas and 10 Mbps and below
for general population. Prime Minister also believes that with a speedy access, transfer and
exchange of communication will contribute to development efficiency and productivity of
economics activities, financial transactions and critical decision making, thus delivering the
greater for the well-being of societies, vibrancy of industries, competitiveness of nations and
promoting quadruple-play from traditional triple-play application which comprising voice, data and
video. NIB also may be possible to transport large amounts of information across networks to
any part of the world in very short time. Government conclude Malaysia’s broadband journey
started as a logical follow through of the country ICT development, including initiatives in
computerization, upgrading and digitalization of communications network, the introduction of the
Multimedia Super Corridor in 1996, the advent and phenomenal take-up of internet and IP based
technologies and the introduction of the National Broadband Plan in October 2004. The strategy
accepted under the plan was to address the availability of broadband as an engine of growth and
the digital divide with the objective of providing equitable access to communication services.
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3. Article Review
Conclusion
From the articles, I believe that NBI will be kick start to a tremendous development of IT
communities. NBI will benefit Malaysian in improving socio economy stand and promoting the
growth of Nation’s economy. The implementation of NBI will create tangible impact on GDP
contribution of the country. It will also boost the national competitiveness and attract foreign
investors to Malaysia which will resulted new high value jobs in the ICT sector. In the same time,
the implementation will create spin-off effect in order sector such engineering, local content
development and broadcasting. There is still a lot to be done but broadband is clearly a part and
parcel of Malaysian lifestyle already. Access is still a challenge for rural areas where
infrastructure is still not fully available. Cost is another issue that will have to be addressed over
time but history has shown that costs in the sectors fall sharply over time when the services are
widely available. Therefore, cost is perhaps a self-solving problem as demand increases to a
certain threshold level to allow economies of scale in supply to kick-in. Nevertheless, all
stakeholders, including consumers, have to work very hard to ensure the threshold is reached
fast. The only caveat is that service providers must maintain service quality so that these
consumers get the right experience from the word “go
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4. Article Review
References
1. Broadband as engine of growth. (2010, March 23). New Straits Times, p. 25.
Foundation of Information and Communication Technology (IMC 401)
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