Power giant Tenaga Nasional Bhd today said that it hopes to secure a government licence to provide a fixed line telephone network nationwide.

"What we need is a government licence for the last-mile (connection)," Awang Adek Hussin, Tenaga chairperson told reporters on the sidelines of the Umno annual meeting.

Awang said the service would enable Tenaga to meet communications and Internet demand in Malaysia, especially from schools and rural communities which are mostly populated by the Malay community that Umno represents.

Tenaga had already built a nationwide network fibre optics that run alongside its transmission lines.

Competition on hand

Analysts said that if Tenaga obtains government approval, it would very likely be in a position to rival Telekom Malaysia, the country's largest communication company.

Telekom is merging its own mobile phone service TM Cellular with Celcom.

Telekom had said that the purchase of Celcom would create the country's biggest mobile phone entity with a subscriber base of more than three million and a 40 percent market share.

Earlier in his speech at the assembly, Awang who is deputy chief of Umno Kelantan, pressed the need to improve infrastructure in rural Malaysia. - AFP