KOTA KINABALU, Jan 4 — About 280 villagers from Kampung Gusi, Ranau now can receive high-speed WiFi hotspot services after Common Tower Technologies Sdn Bhd (CTT) and Measat Global Berhad (Measat) successfully deployed its CONNECTme NOW service in the village.

CTT, a wholly-owned company of Warisan Harta Sabah Sdn Bhd, an investment arm of the Sabah state government, was approached to provide broadband connectivity through the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) service.

This is following the incident involving of a group of students from the village, who got injured after a bridge collapsed while they were attempting to obtain mobile broadband signals for online learning, the companies said in a joint statement.

Rural areas like Kampung Gusi, where infrastructure is a challenge, deploying terrestrial communications for connectivity would take time and effort, the statement read.

"CONNECTme NOW by Measat was the ideal solution to provide quick upgrades to improve internet communication and reliability, so the students and the community of Kampung Gusi have the connectivity they need to help navigate the challenges especially during this time,” the statement said.

It said the community there can now immediately enjoy broadband services with speeds of up to 30 Mbps by purchasing affordable prepaid vouchers which provide users the freedom to choose data packages according to their needs. — Bernama