CABLE AND WIRELESS IN MALAYSIA CABLE DEAL
Malaysia's telecommunication
authority has entered into a deal with a British firm to instal
a 100 mln dlrs fibre optic submarine cable to link Peninsula
Malaysia with eastern Sabah and Sarawak states, the national
news agency Bernama reported.
    <Syarikat Telekom Malaysia Bhd> (STM) signed an agreement
to set up a joint venture company with Britain's Cable and
Wireless PLC <CAWL.L> to instal, maintain and operate the 1,500
kms-long cable by 1989, it said.
    STM Chairman Mohamed Rashdan Baba and Cable and Wireless
Chairman and Chief Executive Eric Sharp signed the agreement.
    The joint venture company will be 51 pct owned by STM and
49 pct by Cable and Wireless, the news agency said. It gave no
details on equity or when the project will be started.
    Mohamed Rashdan said the cable link will carry domestic and
international telecommunication traffic and added that STM
planned to ask other telecommunication administrations in
Southeast Asia to use the cable.
    Sharp said the cable could make Malaysia a major
telecommunications centre in the region.
    STM, which used to be the government's telecommunication
department previously, was privatised in January 1987.
 REUTER
