Stockholm // 2003-12-02

PacketFront selected to provide true broadband in Malaysia´s super corridor

PacketFront, the next generation broadband infrastructure provider, has announced that it has been selected to provide an Operator Independent Network solution, enabling True Broadband services, to the business city of Cyberjaya, Malaysia. The city, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, is at the heart of the country’s Multi-Media Super Corridor (MSC) – a concentration of high-tech homes, business parks and shopping areas driving Malaysia’s information society.

In a project planned and implemented by Swedish company AccessGate, on behalf of local property developer Setia Haruman Sdn. Bhd. (SHT), the fibre to the home (FTTH) network will allow residents and businesses of Cyberjaya to receive next generation broadband services from competing service providers whilst remaining connected to a single physical network.

Co-operation between two of Sweden’s leading broadband experts will result in SHT delivering Malaysia’s first OIN to the inhabitants of Cyberjaya. The deployment of True Broadband is fundamental to the development of what SHT terms " Smart Homes" – living spaces committed to high-tech automation where high-speed broadband is viewed as a utility.

In the first stage of the project’s roll-out, 300 apartments will be connected to AccessGate’s FTTH network. SHT will then act as the communications operator, responsible for securing a raft service providers to compete for customers over the network.

"SHT selected AccessGate and its business partner PacketFront due of its ability to provide a complete solution that was compliant with our FTTH needs," said Zakran Abdul Manan, General Manager Infrastructure at Setia Haruman Sdn. Bhd. " Due to the complexity of the network, it was important for us to implement a turn-key solution and that is what we have achieved."

The planning documentation and installation of the network will be handled by AccesGate’s Access Design System (ADS), a design and engineering platform on which AccessGate bases its network solutions. ADS will enable fast and flexible build-out of the next steps of the Cyberjaha roll-out.

"Cyberjaya is an ambitious and innovative project that requires partners with a great deal of expertise in the emerging area of open access, fibre to the home networks," said Kurt Hamrin, VP Marketing, AccessGate. " The combined experience of both ourselves and PacketFront, coupled with the complimentary nature of our ADS and BECS meant SHT was getting the right equipment and support it needed to make this concept a reality."

PacketFront’s central broadband service and control provisioning system, BECS , enables companies such as SHT to build and manage fully automated True Broadband Networks with on-demand, self- provisioning functionality. This gives end users the ability to increase capacity and change services themselves, cutting out the delay of waiting for a third party to make the changes. This feature also significantly reduces the network owners’ operational costs. " This capability drastically reduces SHT’s operational expenditure (OPEX), whilst maintaining infinite possibilities for freedom of choice and service differentiation on the network," continued Zakran Abdul Manan.

"This project is wholly in-keeping with PacketFront’s vision of a True Broadband network," said Martin Thunman, CEO, PacketFront. " We are delighted to have been chosen by AccessGate, to assist in this ground breaking project."

About the Malaysian super corridor and Cyberjaya
The Multi-Media Super Corridor (MSC) is a business- and research area outside of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, with the concentration towards IT and BioTech. The business city of Cyberjaya is being built in the corridor,. MSC was founded in 1996, and is part of the Malaysian government’s plan to turn the country from industrial to information society by 2020. The project has a prestigious Advisory Board, where amongst others Bill Gates and Lars Ramqvist (ex, Ericsson) are members. Within the MSC-zone, numerous universities with a technology-focus are located, and several of them have cooperation with European and American universities.

About AccessGate
AccessGate provides products and solutions for integration of communications networks. The concepts are based on the unique competences of AccessGate within engineering, project management, the design tool Access Design System and the standardized product solutions for broadband to homes and offices. The core competences within AccessGate are network solutions, project management and material flow in installation projects. AccessGate has managed the largest Fibre to the home project in Sweden, Vällingby Nät towards AB Svenska bostäder. AccessGate is situated in Rissne in the Northwest of Stockholm. www.accessgate.se