Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Rehda Wants Government To Reconsider Compulsory Broadband Facilities

KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (Bernama) -- The Real Estate and Housing Developers Association Malaysia (Rehda) wants the government to reconsider the provision of making it compulsory to install broadband facilities at new commercial and residential areas as it would incur more costs to the developers.
Rehda president Datuk Ng Seing Liong, while applauding the government's efforts to boost broadband usage in the country, said however, the service would involve a large sum of capital.
He said, this was because developers needed to come up with an agreement with the internet service provider (ISP) companies.
"While the ISP companies will be able to reap profits via the subscription, developers on the other hand, will have to fork out extra cost to provide the facility," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
On top of that, he said, not all house buyers would subscribe to the broadband service, especially in the rural and small town areas.
Ng said Rehda hoped the government would understand the industry's predicament as the compulsory provision meant extra cost to developers who were already burdened with other utility contributions.
He said there could be alternative measures or rewards to encourage house buyers to subscribe to the broadband service, instead of pushing the task to developers.
In view of limited provision of telecommunication facilities, Ng said, the responsibility should be undertaken by the ISP as they had proper facilities.
He felt the government should undertake a cost-benefit study on the system before it was made mandatory and at the same time, try to find a solution that would benefit all parties, without solely burdening developers.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin recently said that efforts were being made to amend the Uniform Building By-Laws 1984, to make the broadband infrastructure a compulsory service.

tunku : broadband facilities nowadays are very important especially for new develop area as it is lack of basic utilities such as the telecommunications.i think rehda is right, it is not right for the government to make the developer to bear the cost for installing broadband facilities.the developers for sure will put the cost to their house buyers. by right the isp providers should bear the cost as they will benefit and make profit out of it.may be the government can give them some incentives for providing such facilities.that will be the right thing to do.

5 comments:

azreen said...

kalo dah nama opportunist n tamak apa yg penting dorg je yg untung pedulilah csr ke rakyat ke kerajaan ke..padahal kerajaan punya la baik..macam-macam subsidi insetif diberi..

kerajaan malaysi ni terlalu baik sgt sampaikan dipijak balik oleh si pendatang yang tamak n tak reti besyukur..

tunku said...

you are mad at the developer or the isp provider?
don't be emotional....pls gives some facts.thanks azreen.

azreen said...

both isp n developer..

512kbs/1mbps per effort basis? do we pay per effort?

18.8 Tariff Related Incentives
(i) Exemption from Import Duty on Raw Materials/Components
Full exemption from import duty can be considered for raw materials/components, regardless of whether the finished products are meant for the export or domestic market.

Where the finished products are for the export market, full exemption from import duty on raw materials/components is normally granted, provided the raw materials/components are not produced locally or, where they are produced locally, are not of acceptable quality and price.

Where the finished products are for the domestic market, full exemption from import duty on raw materials/components that are not produced locally can be considered. Full exemption can also be considered if the finished products made from dutiable raw materials/ components are not subject to any import duty.

tunku said...

thanks azreen,
i think in this case the isp should bear the cost not the developer. the developer already bearing the cost for electricity and water supply to the house which cost.....any further cost to them will increase the price of the house.

hikayat-penuh-ranjau said...

To Azreen...
That's informative.. But you've failed miserably in the construction industry..

That incentive, i.e tariff exemption is only beneficial to the manufacturers (factory).
First, what is broadband? How is it transmitted? In present technology, we can have broadband via cables or waveband (eg. Wimax). For cables, we can use either fiber optic of Cat6 (made of copper).

Therefore, those incentives are only applicable to manufacturers. Do you think to build a house, a developer has to be a cement manufacturer, brick manufacturer, cable manufacturer, lamp manufacturer, etc etc? The answer is hell No!

The developers need to select sub-contractors to do the works. Even the sub-contractors have to buy those ready made items from the manufacturers.

In the end, when it is made compulsory, the costs will be passed down to the buyer. It's simple mathematics, low cost, low price, high cost, high price..

Broadband is still not a necessity.. and I do think the final buyer should bear the cost. Not even the ISP provider.