Sabah will also enjoy better communication services and high-speed Internet access through the Nationwide Fiberisation Plan (2017-2019) which will commence next year.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak said the implementation of the fiberisation plan could educate the community to be computer literate so that they would be sensitive to the importance and need for Internet access.

"It can directly help to boost the social economy through online business," he said when officiating the Prize Giving Ceremony for the National Level Selfie Wefie Competition, here, Friday night. He said the implementation of the plan was one of the noble efforts of the Government in raising the standard of public communication as well as access to more sophisticated Internet services.

Salleh said the fibre network under the plan would link about six million premises including about two million premises in the rural areas.

The model's implementation plan would be 3-tiered with Tier 1 focusing on back-haul facilities belonging to Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Tier 2 for the final connection and Tier 3 for the preparation of retail services to be offered by the existing telecommunication companies.

The plan would be monitored by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission under the existing supervisory framework to ensure that its achievement was according to the specified target.

This article was first published in Daily Express.