Malaysian students forced into Internet extremes

In a YouTube video that went viral last June, 18-year-old Veveonah Mosibin, who lives in a village in the remote Pitas district in the east Malaysian state of Sabah showed how she had to trek up a hill and sleep in a tree just to get an Internet signal for an exam online.

In November, eight students in the same state, on Borneo island, who would meet on a suspension bridge to get Internet access for their online classes narrowly escaped death after plunging 18m when the bridge collapsed. One of them suffered spinal injuries.

Flip-flop rulings on the reopening of schools in Malaysia are a major headache for parents and students, especially those without broadband access.

Hopes for a return to the classroom nationwide last month were dashed after the government reversed the decision, as the country continued to battle a fresh wave of Covid-19 infections which persisted despite the re-imposition of tougher curbs under the so-called Movement Control Order (MCO).

Some four million students nationwide were forced to resume virtual learning, except for those sitting major exams, but this has been impossible for some.

Malaysia's household Internet penetration rate improved from 87 per cent in 2018 to 90.1 per cent in 2019, but the media continues to be littered with reports of students climbing trees or hills for better reception, just so they can keep up with online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even users in the Klang Valley, home to the country's capital, have complained of slow Internet connectivity.

Project manager Khadijah Ain, who lives in Shah Alam, Selangor, said some of her son's teachers seemed to suffer technical issues, with video lags and choppy audio.

"One issue that is widely recognised is the lack of high-quality Internet infrastructure in rural and remote areas of the country," Dr Rachel Gong, senior research associate at the Khazanah Research Institute, told The Sunday Times.

Another issue is the quality of connectivity where download speeds are significantly lower than network speeds reported by service providers, especially during the MCO, she added.

State telecommunications firm Telekom Malaysia has recorded a 15 per cent increase in overall Internet traffic since the inception of the second MCO, which came into force on Jan 13. The MCO was first imposed in March last year, and most restrictions under this order were lifted by June.

But more people in Malaysia connect to the Internet using a mobile device and a mobile data plan than by a computer with a fixed broadband connection, said Dr Gong.

Data from the regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), shows fixed broadband penetration rates at 34.5 per cent as at the second quarter of last year.

In Sabah, the figure is only 16.1 per cent, one of the lowest in Malaysia, second only to Kelantan with a mere 12.2 per cent fixed broadband penetration rate.

However, while Malaysia's mobile broadband penetration rate is 116.7 per cent, Sabah's rate is 78.8 per cent, the lowest in the country.

Compared with 4G connection in Malaysia, fixed broadband generally offers better speeds and greater reliability, but in states like Sabah, where households tend to be larger and more rural, fixed broadband or strong network performance is harder to find, said Dr Gong.

The government aims to roll out better connectivity and coverage to all Malaysians by 2025 under the RM21 billion (S$6.9 billion) National Digital Network plan.

Sabah is set to receive nearly 400 new communication towers by next year, while 924 existing transmitters will be upgraded.

In the meantime, villagers like canteen worker Suzianah Bidin, whose children have to walk 45 minutes just for Internet access, are hoping for the best.

After she posted photographs of her children's plight on social media, she said that MCMC officers visited her village. They promised that a communication tower will be built in the village this year.