BATANG KALI, December 17 – The country’s four major telecommunication companies have been ordered to the location of the landslide at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite here to survey the problem of poor Internet access and find the best solution to overcome it. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission as well as four national telecommunication companies including Maxis, Digi, Celcom and UMobile went down to inspect the scene of the incident at 2pm this afternoon to install their respective satellite dishes.
“However, given the very limited area, it makes it difficult for them to get a place to install the antenna,” he told Bernama Friday night. He said, as a result of the discussion, only Maxis will install the satellite dish first before the JaPen Media Center shares the Wi-Fi connection to all media practitioners who have camped at the scene since this morning. He said Telekom Malaysia is also in the process of installing transmitters to facilitate Wi-Fi connections, but the stability of Internet access depends on the distance they are installed from the location of the tragedy.
Dozens of media practitioners covering the tragedy are facing problems getting access to the Internet to report on the latest developments regarding the incident. The situation forced several journalists to walk a kilometer away from the media center provided by JaPen to get Internet access to send reports to their respective offices. In addition, Bernama’s observation found that a handful of media practitioners had to ride motorbikes and four-wheel drive vehicles of security personnel to go to high places to gain access to the Internet.
As of 8pm, Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed that 21 bodies have been found, 12 are still missing while another 61 victims have been successfully rescued. The landslide incident involving Father’s Organic Farm at 2.42 in the morning trapped a total of 94 individuals including the camp site workers. – BERNAMA
