(The Malaysian Today; April 30th, 2003)

KUCHING: The state is looking forward to using both satellite and wireless broadband technology to expand the connection of Sarawak Net all over the state.

State secretary Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Husain said that the satellite and wireless technology had it own advantages and disadvantages in connecting state government department and offices online.

"Satellite can cover all district, sub-district, village and even school in the rural areas in one time but it cost more, and the capacity is less than the wireless network technology," he said the state-level E-Syariah at a leading hotel here yesterday.

He said wireless technology has limited coverage but the capacity could be upgraded to make it faster, and this makes it suitable in areas that have many users and requires fast network connection capacity.

Aziz said that among the areas that might use the wireless technology are Mukah, Dalat and few coastal areas that had become the centre of government administration. Other remote areas, including Ba' Kalalan and Bario, will use the satellite connection.

"For now, there is no confirmation to the proposed plan as we have yet to work out the total cost, but with both technology all the sub-district in coastal areas such as Oya and remote areas such as Long Lama could be connected," he said.

He also said that in line with the new technology application, training of government staff in using ICT would be continued to upgrade them, through the Sarawak Information System (Sains) and local training institution.

He lamented that many small and medium industry were still not using ICT because they were either not aware or did not have the infrastructure.

"This is the reason we still need to emphasise on awareness of ICT and at the same time provide the facilities to the locals," he said.

He said that Sarawak, through Sains, was already ahead of other states in ICT, and E-Syariah is their first successful project implemented outside the state.