KINIBIZ The contractor for the ambitious project to put an Internet-ready device in the hands of five million Malaysian students isn’t a charity. Is 1Bestari simply an excuse for YTL to expand 4G coverage while getting the government to foot the bill? Does that explain why there is no incentive to make sure it works right?

It is a huge contract - RM4 billion over 15 years to equip the nation’s schools with high-speed Internet access and cloud-based computing systems.

Some 10,000 schools will be fitted out with the latest 4G mobile communications technology. Five million students will get Google Chromebooks, which are laptop computers without an operating system in the conventional sense. Instead, they connect directly to the Internet through a browser the moment they are turned on.

Linking up all those Chromebooks is the Frog network, a virtual learning environment where those five million students interact with their teachers and parents. Word games, textbooks, and report cards - those are the kinds of things that you will expect to find on Frog.

It’s an ambitious plan to launch rural Malaysia into the information age. For schools in the East Malaysian interior, some of which are still without water or electricity, the arrival of 1Bestari is nothing short of momentous.

Almost a billion ringgit has been spent so far, with the vast majority of schools now fitted out with telecommunications towers to beam 4G signals.

For the full story go to KiniBiz .

This article was written by Chan Quan Min.