COMMON Tower Technologies Sdn Bhd (CTT) and MEASAT Global Bhd (Measat) deployed an innovative prepaid WiFi hotspot service, dubbed CONNECTme NOW, for the community of Kampung Gusi Ranau in Ranau Sabah.
The initiative was a sparked by the news of students in the area who were recently injured after a bridge collapsed while they were attempting to obtain mobile broadband signals for online learning.
Offering an immediate solution to the community, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) approached CTT to provide broadband connectivity through a very small aperture terminal (VSAT) service.
“In urban areas, networks are being pushed to their limit as more people stay home to work and learn remotely. Especially for rural areas like Kampung Gusi Ranau, where infrastructure is a challenge and it would take time/effort to deploy terrestrial communications for connectivity,” CTT general manager Law Chun Ming.
“CONNECTme NOW by MEASAT was the ideal solution to provide quick upgrades to improve Internet communication and reliability, so the students and the community of Kampung Gusi Ranau have the connectivity they need,” he added.
The service is a sustainable prepaid business model for rural broadband connectivity. With no contract or fixed monthly charges, subscribers only pay for what they use with Prepaid Access Code (PAC) vouchers at CONNECTme NOW community WiFi hotspots.
CONNECTme NOW is rapidly connecting the unconnected rakyat with over 100,000 broadband connections nationwide for the rakyat residing outside of 4G or terrestrial coverage, empowering rural communities to be part of the digital economy. – Jan 4, 2021
