The Malaysian parliament has rejected a motion to debate the decision to award the company's high-speed broadband (HSBB) project to to Telekom Malaysia (TM) without a tender process.
The country's lower house, the Dewan Rakyat, rejected the motion on the grounds that the issue was not urgent. The decision was made despite the house acknowledging that the matter was of the public interest.
The HSBB contract is worth 11.3 billion ringgits ($3.18 billion)
The ruling Barisan Nasional party holds 50.2% of the voting power in the Dewan Rakyat. Bills typically require a two thirds majority to pass.
TM meanwhile has announced plans to increase its broadband infrastructure capacity by 30%. The upgrade will allow the company to increase its capacity to 130Gbps in 2009.
According to TM, the upgrade is necessary to cope with rising demand for online services, particularly VoIP and video on demand.