Residents in the Slim state constituency will enjoy 4G internet coverage by next year, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

He said the construction of two telecommunication towers at Changkat Sulaiman and Changkat Serunai were expected to be completed by the end of this year while five others were in the pipeline at Felda Besout, targeted for completion in the second quarter of next year.

“Besides that, 25 transmitters in telecommunication towers are being upgraded. We hope with the addition of new telecommunication towers and upgrading of coverage transmitters, internet connections will be faster and better in Slim,” he said.

Saifuddin told this to reporters at a gathering with the media at the Slim state by-election media centre, here, today.

Also present was the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the by-election, Mohd Zaidi Aziz.

On the Internet Centre handled by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Saifuddin said there were seven centres operating in Slim state constituency with five of them in Felda Besout 1 to Felda Besout 5, while there is one each in Trolak Utara and Trolak Selatan.

“We strongly encourage people to make use of the existing Internet Centre for e-commerce and I am confident that the locals can use the content provided related to e-commerce, e-rezeki and so on.

“Managers at each Internet Centre always have activities for each community, they can negotiate if they want additional activities, the state government will also support," he said.

He said he had instructed MCMC to re-evaluate the assets including computers at 1,100 Internet Centres nationwide so that they are suitable for use in line with current developments.

-- BERNAMA