By Neville Spykerman
SHAH ALAM, Nov 10 — The Selangor government is hoping to attract Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to set up twin operations in the landmark I-City development, which promises 1GBps broadband or 100 times more than the 10MBps that will be offered by Telekom Malaysia.
Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who made the announcement this morning while tabling next year’s state budget, described I-City as the country’s first digital community and worth RM2 billion.
State officials say that it could also rival Cyberjaya, which the federal government launched 10 years ago as a cornerstone of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) that stretches to Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC)
State officials told The Malaysian Insider that entrepreneurs from Silicon valley would be making a trip to I-City as early as Nov 19 to “test” out the system, which is touted to have the fastest and widest broadband in the region.
Both South Korea and Singapore are already expanding their broadband, now under 100MBps, to eventually reach 1GBps. Meanwhile, Telekom Malaysia is working to get its High Speed Broad Band (HSBB) to reach 10MBps next year.
During his budget speech, Khalid said the technological innovations would benefit people in Selangor in the long run through the “plug and play” concept.
According to the developers, I-City will have full fibre-optics connectivity for all buildings within the massive project.
Penang has also focused on broadband with chief minister Lim Guan Eng stressing on wireless broadband as a catalyst for the state’s economic future.
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