BATANG KALI – The country’s four main telecommunication companies (telcos) have been instructed to go to the landslide location at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite here to monitor the issue of poor internet access and find the best solution to overcome it.
According to a spokesman from the Information Department, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and four telcos – namely Maxis, Digi, Celcom and UMobile – had gone to survey the scene of the incident at about 2pm to install their respective satellite dishes.
“However, given the limited area, it was difficult for them to find a place to install the antenna,” he told Bernama, here, tonight.
Following discussions, he said only Maxis will install the satellite dish first before the Information Department Media Centre shares the WiFi connection with all media practitioners who have been camping at the location since early this morning.
He said Telekom Malaysia was also in the process of installing a transmitter (antenna) to facilitate WiFi connection but the stability of Internet access will depend on the distance it is installed from the location of the tragedy.
Dozens of media practitioners covering the landslide tragedy at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite are having difficulty getting Internet access to transmit reports on the latest developments about the incident.
This has forced some journalists to walk as far as one kilometre from the media centre provided by the Information Department for Internet access to transmit their news items to their respective offices.
Apart from that, Bernama observed that a handful of media practitioners also had to hitch a ride on motorcycles and four-wheel drives of security personnel to get to higher grounds for better internet access.
As of 8pm today, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed that 21 bodies had been found, 12 victims are still missing and 61 others have been rescued.
The landslide incident at Father’s Organic Farm at 2.42am involved a total of 94 individuals including the campsite workers. – Bernama, December 16, 2022
