KUALA LUMPUR: The poor in rural and urban areas will soon enjoy free first half hour of Internet usage.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said details of the initiative are being worked out by the Information, Communication and Culture Ministry.
He made the announcement during a working visit to Telekom Malaysia(TM) here on Tuesday.
Najib also announced on behalf of the TM management that all staff would get one-off bonus payment of RM500.
Information minister, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, told reporters later that the initiative should start next month using qualification criteria of the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia programme (BR1M). "This means that those with a household income of less than RM3,000 a month qualify.
"But we will still study the mechanism, even if there are those who don't meet the criteria, we will try to open it to them," he said, adding that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission would take charge of the initiative.
Rais added that the first half an hour of free Internet should be offered on a daily basis and involved all telcos and internet service providers.
"We made a study recently that most people only use between 15 and 30 minutes of Internet every day," he said.
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