Communication Minister, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah has announced the appointment of Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi as the new chairman of Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission with immediate effect.

The appointment comes off the back the recent fiasco on spectrum allocation which was later rescinded after the Minister felt they were not in compliance with a number of guidelines. Fadlullah who was the Deputy Chancellor of University Perdana has over 20 years experience in the telecommunication sector and used to work in MCMC he replaces former Chairman, Al-Ishal Ishak who was appointed by the then Communication Minister YB Gobind Deo under the previous government. Al-Ishal was involved in the handing out of the much touted spectrum after months of lobbying by telco’s.

With this change, Saiffudin stressed the need for MCMC to be more expansive in the nations broadband agenda especially after Covid-19 and will be closely looking at how the agency can support the infrastructure efforts in connecting the urdan sub-urban and the rural. 5G rollout will be be scheduled after thorough study and improvement will be made when it comes to spectrum allocations. MCMC will undergo an overhaul starting from its scope of responsibility to its organisational chart, meaning we can expect to see reshuffling of workforce.

Fadlullah comes at a time when the country just recovered from a major pandemic, however during the lockdown the vulnerability of the country was there for all to see, our broadband coverage was deplorable over the 4 months. School children could not study online due to poor coverage and businesses that had no choice but to shut their physical operation were struggling to go online due to congestion and unavailability of lines in their area.