Reach Ten calls for Sarawak funds on last mile rural connectivity
by James Wong · Borneo Post OnlineKUCHING (September 23): Reach Ten Holdings Bhd (Reach Ten) wants Sarawak’s own funding under the Post Covid-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030 directed at last-mile connectivity in the state’s hardest-to-reach communities with federal Universal Service Provision (USP) money carrying the more capital-intensive towers and backhaul.
Managing director Leo Chin said splitting the cost according to which side holds the comparative advantage would be the right model for closing the state’s remaining coverage gap, ahead of Budget 2027 being tabled on October 9.
For context, Utility and Telecommunication Minister Dato Sri Julaihi Narawi in June revealed that internet coverage across Sarawak has increased from 54.3 per cent in 2022 to 94.5 per cent as of June this year under the Sarawak Linking Urban, Rural and Nation (Saluran) initiative.
The remaining 5.5 per cent, Chin said, is disproportionately deep-interior longhouses and hill terrain, where per-subscriber cost is “astronomically higher” than urban rollout.
He said telecommunications coverage is treated as critical national infrastructure, and the USP fund exists because remote areas are commercially unviable for operators to serve alone.
“Equity across states requires the federal government to support, since Sarawak is still behind in terms of coverage,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Borneo Post.
On the other hand, he said, Sarawak has fiscal autonomy ambitions and its own resources, including oil royalties and state revenue, that PCDS 2030 draws on.
“Therefore, in a way, Sarawak is better positioned to prioritise its own “last mile” needs than federal agencies juggling competing state demands,” he said.
As such, he said federal USP funds should carry base infrastructure such as towers and backhaul as it is the most capital-intensive part, while state PCDS 2030 money goes towards last-mile connectivity and community-specific solutions such as satellite and mesh networks for very small longhouses.
He added that Sarawak’s digital transformation has advanced significantly in larger cities and towns while connectivity in rural and remote areas remains uneven.
In stating this, he said where the current approach falls short is the pace of completion for the most remote and scattered communities where difficult terrain, land matters and logistical constrains make tower and fibre rollout costliest and slowest to reach.
While satellite has bridged that gap as an interim measure, Chin hopes Budget 2027 will treat it as a more permanent, budgeted component of the state’s digital infrastructure mix for the hardest-to-reach areas.
“Sustained funding here would allow operators like us to scale coverage faster and more cost-effectively while tower and fibre infrastructure is still being rolled out,” he said.
He stressed this is not an either/or against tower-building, as towers remain the right solution where population density and terrain make them commercially and technically viable.
Chin also wants the government to allocate funds to spearhead the development and deployment of Direct-to-Device (D2D) connectivity, particularly for underserved areas.
On the National Digital Network (Jendela) programme and the USP fund, which have driven most rural coverage work to date, Chin said he would like to see that commitment continue into the next phase with clearer multi-year targets so operators can plan and invest with confidence.
Budget 2026 allocated RM780 million for Jendela Phase 2, covering 2,700 rural and school locations nationwide, 69 per cent of them in Sabah and Sarawak.
In Sarawak, 636 towers were completed under Phase 1 and another 337 sites have been identified for Phase 2, which is due to start in the fourth quarter.
On the government side of demand, Chin said he would like to see all government offices, whether rural or urban, along with all public schools and clinics, guaranteed at least 1Gbps connectivity.
“That would set a clear national benchmark and ensure that no community, no matter how remote, is left without access to essential digital services,” he said.
He said such facilities require higher investment because the return is not purely commercial, but is measured in access to essential services for underserved communities.
For the group itself, the priority is continued and renewed contract tenures on existing projects, which would help justify the RM104 million raised from its Main Market listing in May last year, particularly for fibre infrastructure.
Chin said Budget 2027 would need to sustain funding for tower rollout, further Jendela Phase 2 allocations and continued support for broadband access programmes such as Satellite Communication (SATCOM) and MySRBN.
“A material slowdown in these commitments, or in the broader push behind PCDS 2030 and the Sarawak Digital Economy Blueprint 2030 would be the key risk to our long-term outlook on the sector,” he said.