Brunei saw major developments in telecommunications infrastructure

Some residents of the Sultanate are already enjoying faster Internet speeds this year following the launch of Telekom Brunei Berhad’s (TelBru) high speed broadband (HSBB) service.

As of November, 2013, the telco has connected to more than 12,000 homes within Phase 1 of the nationwide fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) roll-out project. Phase 1, which began in 2011, covered the areas with the highest residential density in the country: Madang, Gadong and Bandar Seri Begawan.

TelBru has also started expanding its HSBB roll-out for Phase 2, which covers Bengkurong, Sengkurong, Rimba, the stretch along Jalan Muara, Mentiri as well as a large portion of Kuala Belait and Seria.

Under Phase 2, which is expected to be completed in 2014, the telco is looking to connect 14,000 homes.

Meanwhile, DST launched the much anticipated 4G LTE network service to its GO! Broadband service subscribers after conducting months of trials.
With the availability of 4G and FTTH, Brunei has finally caught up with the rest of the world in high speed broadband infrastructure.

In June 2013, Brunei joined Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in an alignment with the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) 700 MHz band plan to meet the exponential growth of mobile broadband data traffic in the region.