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Sarawak can thank the Chinese business community for spurring better communications in the State. Rajah Charles Brooke was instrumental in establishing a continuous line stretching 600 kilometers from Kuching to the Baram river in the early 1900s. The telecommunications Department was established in 1946 when Sarawak became a Crown Colony. Ten years later, about 12 million was spent on telecommunication development and by 1960, the first trunk telephone system was established between Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri, enabling subscribers to make international calls. Telecommunications continued to be administered under the Posts and Telecommunications Department until 1967 when the separation of the two services came into effect. On 1st January 1968, the Telecommunications Department Malaysia, came into being following the merger of the Telecommunications Departments of Sabah and Sarawak with that of Peninsular Malaysia.

Since then, telecommunications in the State has developed at quite an amazing rate, considering that there are still a lot of areas in the interior that are not even accessible by road. Telekom Malaysia Berhad, Malaysia's pioneer telecommunication provider has set-up an infrastructure enabling telephone facilities in even the most remote villages in the state. Most of the areas in Sarawak also receive cellular telecommunications coverage via the various service providers in the country.

On October 12 1988, Syarikat Telekom Malaysia (STMB) was formed and the operations of Jabatan Telekom Malaysia (JTM) transferred to STMB with Sarawak having the first and only director of Telekom Malaysia Sarawak (TMS). On August 1989, Celcom (Malaysia) established the first cellular network, ART900. Six years later, in 1995, Mutiara Telekom Bhd, DiGi 1800 network and TM touch entered the Sarawak market.


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