As predicted the saga between Ministry of Education and YTL see’s further drama ensuing, officers from the Ministry have released a statement and held a press conference to address the claims put forward by the telecommunication company after its service to offer connectivity for all schools in the country was not renewed.
This comes after YTL Corp highlighted that the 1BestariNet contract was terminated without prior notice and that the Ministry decided to hand over the contract to Celcom, Maxis and TM despite YTL agreeing to offer the same service for free. MOE denied this accusation and put forth the contract details which expired as of 30 June 2019. After six years costing the rakyat billion of ringgit the 1Bestari project, YTL is only now putting up proposal for free service, at a questionable juncture. It is also a known fact that the telecommunication towers placed in schools works as a method for YTL to leverage its YES communication. This is how the operator has been making money. Paying very low rental (RM200 per month) whereas others are paying 10x more, YES is able to maximise profits on its network while not requiring to incur heavy rental charges. SO if you find your YES signal strong within school vicinity the reason is this, and its not by default that they are full 4G as this was the requirement back then.
The Ministry also claimed service at schools were not up to mark, poor connectivity and intermittent disruption meant no access to student and teachers. Just like normal bandwidth, the lines must have been congested with additional users in the area pointing to the fact that the lines supplied to the school were not dedicated. It is fair to say, what MOE did is within the ambit of the contract which the prerogative lies with the Ministry to look at other vendors who could potentially deliver better service to the schools. Its also stated that YTL is allowed to compete and offer proposals, but will be subjected to evaluation like everyone else.
YTL should stop crying foul and look at how its going to salvage the network delivery to its non-education customers who will be expecting continued service. Without the access to the towers or if MOE decides to raise the rentals, can YES be able to sustain or will YTL look at bailing out selling the company to the first bidder?
