| Siti Hajar |
THE country’s main telecommunications company, Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru), is expected to continue with its evolution beyond fibre cable communication with network infrastructure being part of the company’s growth plan to cope with rising customer demand.
In a recent interview, the company’s technological team revealed that TelBru is eyeing the end of the year to have in place a more unified backbone network, compared to the outdated infrastructure that were in place prior to the company’s corporatisation a decade ago.
As part of this process, Pengiran Mohd Sazali bin Pengiran Haji Razali, Head of Core Network of TelBru; Edwin Lim, General Manager of TelBru Access Network; and James Pugh, TelBru Chief Technology Officer said that the company will continue to consolidate its different networks to bring them under one roof, while at the same time retiring old equipment.
“We will have a brand new network pretty soon, and a big part of that is the new transmission network,” they said, adding that they were taking future growth and market projections into consideration, while facilitating faster internet speeds to complement the company’s fibre roll-out and anticipating the rise of broadband and application trends such as 4KTV and facilitating the Smart Nation initiative.
They acknowledged that the company had to invest significantly in these changes, but given the long lifespan of these technologies which are expected to last over the next 30 to 50 years means that Brunei’s network connection is secure, with maintenance as the crucial element for sustainability.
“We will continue to grow as the population growth continues and our market share grows. When we talk about demand it means we have to have the right tools. We are constantly on the lookout for new technology of which that has evolved over the years,” coupled with the adoption of regional and international best practices.
“We know what’s coming and we hope we can provide all these things at the right time,” they said, referring to market taste which is currently dominated by online video streaming, and also in reference to TelBru’s plans to introduce Brunei as a data storing hub for both local and international customers.
Additionally, the company has also made its network more resilient by having Point-of-Presence in two countries, namely Singapore and Hong Kong, with three cable links between them.
The main premise was that should connection to one country become compromised, then connectivity in the alternative country would be able to compensate for the downtime.
Future plans include the introduction of another cable system, known as Trans-Borneo, to add to TelBru’s resiliency and redundancy plans to ensure that Brunei remains connected.
In being a responsible service provider, TelBru has also reinforced its network security, with upgrades in the works to ensure that customers are better protected against risks and threats.
The company is also in the midst of rehashing its Internet Protocol addressing scheme with the use of internal Internet Protocol addresses, versus addresses that are externally accessible.
The team admitted that there are always risks, but assured that TelBru is keeping abreast with emerging and current threats. “We have to answer to our subscribers and we are obligated to provide good world-class service for them, which means keeping up with capacity requirement, keeping up with demand and resource requirements that go with all the latest applications and content.
“In order to hold our heads up as service providers in this industry and as an Internet service provider we must do these things, otherwise it will bring shame on us.”
Being located in a region that is home to at least four economies that have the best global communication networks, TelBru is also aiming to be part of this high-level tiered group, which the team believes is a realistic goal, taking into account Brunei’s stability, both geographically and politically, with a manageable population.
“It will be a very exciting next couple of years for TelBru and for Brunei. We are looking forward to see this company grow to be on par with the top players in the region, and there is no reason why we cannot do it.”
The post TelBru eyeing for more unified backbone network appeared first on Borneo Bulletin Online.