Towards a New Era of ICT:
Exploring the Horizon of High Speed Broadband in Malaysia

With the title “Towards a New Era of ICT: Exploring the Horizon of High Speed Broadband in Malaysia”, the Multimedia University Engineering Society Overseas Research Program, better known as MESCORP, brought 14 students led by the Assoc. Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Dr. Lee Sze Wei on a study and research trip to Japan from 2 to 11 of June, 2007. This student-initiated program was founded in 2002 to carry out various research comparing Malaysia with other countries in terms of scientific and technological advancement. As Japan is the most developed country in terms of broadband infrastructure, conducting a research in Japan can give some insights on how Malaysia can catalyze the growth of our own ICT industry. The project is funded by TM, Shell, Agilent Technology, Motorola, Green Packet and Mobif.

During the trip to Japan, the MESCORM team was hosted by the Yokosuka Research Park (YRP) R&D Promotion Committee, a Japanese government research committee located in the hilly district of the city of Yokosuka, overlooking the bay of Tokyo. Different organizations have been arranged by YRP as respondents to our research, including the NTT Docomo R&D Center, The University of Tokyo, The University of Electro-Communications, Waseda University, KDDI Research Institute Inc., the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Kyocera Corporation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The main objective of this trip is to observe the implementation of high speed broadband in Japan and subsequently recommend methods to replicate the success story of Japan. During the team’s visit to the different organizations, they were given the opportunity to interview high-ranking personnel from the various companies, universities and research institutes. Some university professors gave lectures to provide an insight into Japan’s ICT industry. In addition, the MESCORP team also toured around the test bed and facilities available in YRP and were given the opportunity to have hands-on experience testing some latest technologies that were not yet available in the market yet. The trip served as an excellent platform for the team to study the state of the ICT Industry in Japan and understand better how the Japanese developed their high speed broadband capabilities.

The MESCORP team have since returned from Japan , and is now preparing for the MESCORP Conference and Exhibition to be held on 26 July 2007 . The conference will be joined by academia, industry and government personnel in an effort to better inform all participants regarding the findings of the research in Japan , and to provide insight into the state of broadband implementation and the ICT Industry in Malaysia . Ticket selling for the event will start from 3 July at the Central Plaza and during the Club and Society Registration week. At the conclusion of this year’s MESCORP research, a new batch of students will be recruited to carry on this annual research to another country. For more information, please contact Chin Yik Ming at chinym33@yahoo.com or visit http://mescorp.mmu.edu.my.