Bridging the Digital Divide in Malaysia using Fixed Wireless Access
Siti Maisurah Mohd Hassan, Azah Syafiah Mohd Marzuki, M. Fadzil Bin Amiruddin, S. Bujang, A. K. Samingan, M. K. Salleh, Adhi Iman Sulaiman, Mohd Hafiz Mohamad Nor, Moses Ismail, Mohd Sobhi Ishak, K. B. Zainal Abidin
Abstract
Internet access has become one of the basic necessities in today's world. Though many of us have the luxury to access the internet using various devices through various means, there are a large number of people who do not have access to such facility. Digital divide remains a big challenge in most countries, especially to those in developing countries. In Malaysia, only 25% from the overall internet user comes from the user in the rural area, which indicates that internet penetration is still low in this region. This paper explores the feasibility of using fixed wireless access (FWA) as a solution in providing broadband access to rural and remote areas. 10 proof of concept (POC) sites at underserved areas in rural regions of Malaysia were chosen for LTE-based (Long-Term Evolution) FWA. Results show that the proposed FWA solution was able to provide improvement as high as 63 % and 15 % on the download and upload speed respectively, compared to the user's existing broadband subscription.