KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — The Malaysians Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) targets 1.2 million premises and homes with fibre connectivity by 2021 under the national digital infrastructure plan, Jalinan Digital Negara (Jendela).

Its chairman, Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek said the agency would aggressively work on the target to drive Malaysia towards better digital connectivity.

"It will take time, we will continue to drive the industry to make sure the delivery of the infrastructure is as per targetted,” he said while being a guest on the talk show The Nation broadcast by Bernama TV here, today.

In August, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, announced that the Jendela action plan, which is part of the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025), would lay the foundation for comprehensive and high-quality broadband coverage as well as prepare the country for the transition to 5G technology.

Meanwhile, updating on plans to list Internet services as the third public utility after water and electricity, Fadhlullah said, currently, the Penang government had already made this its policy.

"So, we are now going down to the states, meet up the respective Chief Ministers and Menteris Besar telling them its importance.

"Kedah, Melaka, and Johor have made the announcement, and then we continue to push the rest of the states to also make it happen in all 14 states,”he said.

Mentioning the challenges of realising the targets that had been planned, he said land issues would usually delay plans.

He said every state had its own land laws and MCMC also had to deal with the rules set by the local authorities.

"Imagine, now you go to a state to lay fibre or build a tower (telecommunications). In order to do so, you actually have to deal with land regulations, and this can take a month, sometimes up a year.

"Then you go to the local authorities, they have another set of rules that you need to conform to, you have to go to many departments there to get approvals from... these will cause a very long delay,” he said. — Bernama