James Kon
Unified National Networks Sdn Bhd (UNN) was awarded with Telecom Company of the Year 2023 at the Asian Telecom Awards ceremony in Singapore recently.
The accreditations received from Global Business Outlook and Asian Telecom, and ISO27001:2022 certification are benchmarks for best practices confirming UNN is heading in the right direction with its ICT strategies.
UNN has continuously invested in key initiatives and undertook programmes to build and modernise ICT infrastructure in line with Brunei Vision 2035 to ensure the nation have access to high-speed telecommunications services and contribute to transforming the Sultanate into a smart nation.
In 2022, baseline for fixed broadband speed was upgraded to 50Mbps for all subscribers. And, by third quarter of 2023, 1Gbps fixed broadband is expected to be launched to move the nation one step closer to becoming a gigabit-ready society.
Between 2018 and 2023, UNN has managed to implement fibre from 70 per cent to 92 per cent of populated areas, resulting in 85 per cent of Bruneian households connected to fixed broadband services. As of March 2023, Ookla’s Global Median Speed Report ranked Brunei 87th amongst the world countries in fixed broadband median speed.
The ongoing Radio Access Network (RAN) project started by UNN in 2020 has continuously expanded the nationwide mobile network outreach to bring significantly higher speed for mobile services and additional base stations have been implemented across the country.
By the end of 2022, 92 per cent of the country is already equipped to receive mobile services from base stations that are 5G-ready. Over the next two years, UNN will continue to invest in expanding its mobile network across the four districts, including remote areas like Sukang and Melilas.
The ability of mobile customers to enjoy download speeds of 78Mbps has earned Brunei its number one spot in the ASEAN region for Ookla’s Global Medium Speed ranking, and UNN the acknowledgement as Best Telecommunications Infrastructure Service Provider in Brunei Darussalam by Global Business Outlook in December 2022.
UNN has invested in a new subsea cable system called Asia Link Cable (ALC) and further expanded existing subsea cable systems to increase capacity and to cater for growing data demands from both fixed and mobile services.
In April 2021, UNN together with the three service providers – Datastream Digital Sdn Bhd, imagine Sdn Bhd, and Progresif Sdn Bhd – launched refreshed tariffs which offers increased speed and data at affordable prices.
On December 20 2021, UNN achieved another significant milestone by launching its cloud hosting service as part of its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) portfolio.
This service is entirely managed locally, and resides in geographically redundant and secure UNN Data Centre facilities.
With more business in Brunei going online, UNN introduced its Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) in February 2022 as part of its curated cybersecurity-related product and service portfolio to protect organisations and their businesses from malicious threats and cyberattacks.
In March 2023, after completing a rigorous process, UNN received the ISO27001:2022 certification for implementing an effective information security management system (ISMS) framework and improving its cybersecurity posturing.
