Malaysia will sink RM800 million (US$210.52 million) into broadband facilities to expand the service to rural areas and roll out faster access to the Internet, reports said Saturday.

Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister Lim Keng Yaik was quoted by the New Straits Times as saying broadband penetration nationwide was very low at only 0.44 percent, compared with 48 percent in neighbouring Singapore and 60 percent in South Korea.

"The government will have to invest on the infrastructure for communications such as towers and wireless transmitters. That is the only way we can get the service providers to cover a wider area," he said.

Not left behind

"The service providers are only interested if they have a high volume of users... that is why we will have to go in now and provide the broadband service to those living in the sub-urban and rural areas so that they will not be left behind."

The broadband access would be expanded also to connect schools, government offices, universities and research institutions for telemedicine in local clinics, he added. - AFP