Hunger for xtra speed…

17Jul07

When I stumble upon news about broadband in other countries, there’s much envy that arise within myself.

Well, Malaysia is lucky enough to have broadband services, but I think it is just not enough. Before I comment specifically on Streamyx, let’s just make some general comparison in terms of broadband speed.

The maximum broadband speed provided in Malaysia to date is 4Mbps.
Just in case you miss this out, Mbps represents Mega bits per second, not bytes as many would have thought.

Generally, if I have a connection speed of 512kbps (five hundred and twelve kilobits per second), I have maximum download speed at 64KBps (sixty four kilobytes per second). It would take around 2 – 3 minutes to download a 5MB audio file and an hour + for a 170MB video file.

Regular home user in Malaysia uses 512kbps or 1Mbps which is at an ‘affordable’ price of RM66 and RM88 respectively (unlimited usage)
4MBps package cost RM268

How bout’ other countries. In the UK, broadband speed of average home user is 8Mbps, costing around RM150. Download rate would be 1MB/s, in other words you can download a 5MB audio file in just 5 seconds and a 170 video file in just 3 – 4 minutes. Maximum speed offered in the UK is 24Mbps.

Average US broadband speed is about 1.9Mbps and they pay approximately RM90 for the service. This might due to the fact that US is indeed a very large country, with less dense population, but still, it is way cheaper compared to 2Mbps broadband service in Malaysia.

Japan has one of the most advance technology when it comes to broadband. It offers up to 100Mbps for as low as RM0.77 per Mbps (one of the cheapest in the world, source: OECD)

See comparison chart below:

Look at Malaysia…wow, one of the most expensive in the world.

Broadband are supposed to be cheap, especially in dense and populated area. But why Malaysia, such a small country compare to other big countries out there, can’t offer cheaper broadband services?

The reason? TM have all the answer.

No competition. Streamyx subscribers make up the bulk of broadband users in Malaysia due to the lack of alternative services.

Is it because other broadband provider not competitive enough compared to TM?
NO…
It’s because of TM selfishness…

TM Net’s parent company, TM Bhd., has a monopoly of the last mile connections (basically means, the telephone lines and cables). Unlike the EU, Malaysia has not passed any legislation for the unbundling of last mile connections. This of course gives little chance for other third party companies to compete with TM Net and has thus created an unhealthy business environment. Other companies are only able to set up services in limited area, especially KL and Klang Valley area. Some provide wireless internet connectivity, but such services is very costly.

Now, talk about Streamyx in detail. The services provided is not up to par. Customer service-wise, I would rate 1 out of 10. Don’t believe me? Try call 1300-88-9515 – hotline for Streamyx services. You won’t get through by dialing once, you need a few tries just to hear the automatic tellers voice. After that, you are not guaranteed to be served by an operator/technician. There’s one time that I’m so sick of dialing that number, only to be entertained by the irritating hold-on-call music that I have to call several ‘Click’ centre (TM Net centre) to get help over my broadband dis-connectivity problem.

Connectivity-wise, I am so far happy about it. Disconnectivity cannot be avoided, it happens at least once or twice a year. So far I enjoy 70% – 100% of download speed promised by the package I subscribed to, 512kbps (50 – 64KBps). I’ll rate 7/10 – there are still various cases where the speed is permanently slow, which frustrates some other Streamyx users that I know.

The price? Affordable, still (credit to Dr M for requesting ISPs to lower the price of broadband services during his time as the PM) But expensive in terms of speed when compared with other countries.

Last word, for as long as TM unwilling to open up the last mile connections in Malaysia, we would not see any drastic improvement on Malaysia’s broadband services in the next few years to come.

Have your say…Are you happy with the broadband service in Malaysia? Feeling the itch for extra speed?

Filed under: info, review   |  9 Comments
Tags: broadband, broadband price, broadband speed, Malaysia, streamyx, tmnet