There’s going to be a gathering of more than 100 Malaysian bloggers this weekend, and we’re going to be there too!

We at Josh Lim & Associates will be exhibiting our latest project - an asian blog advertising network, Advertlets.com.

Other than that, we’ll also be spreading awareness about the lack of proper broadband facilities in Malaysia - and yes, that’s this very site, RedesignMalaysia.com.

Be there! Its happening on 9th March 2007, Federal Hotel, KL, 6PM Onwards! Read here and here for more details.

Just a side note about Advertlets.com - it’s basically a blog advertising network, where its killer feature is real time demographics, through the use of polling. The poll engine is particularly impressive, and formed the bulk of the development - you can test it out right here on this site, by scrolling down and looking for the Personal Survey / Advertlets logo. Main reason is, demographics help make advertising messages count - as there’s no point advertising on a site when you have no idea who the visitors area.

And of course, you’re probably wondering what RedesignMalaysia has to do with Advertlets - firstly, both are initiatives from the same company. Which means that when Advertlets takes off - so does the fight for better broadband in Malaysia.

A question for the bloggers here :

1. Do you have a high traffic blog?
2. Are you currently involved in any blog/website advertising programs?
3. If you could make money advertising on your blog, what kind of percentage of the total profits you make would you consider to sponsor RedesignMalaysia? 10%? 25%? 50%? (If you’re wondering what RedesignMalaysia needs your sponsorship for, read here and here. The funds would be used to continually develop the site, including advanced features such as community network monitoring/choose the best ISP for your area, and also to run media awareness campaigns to put pressure on service providers.)

Bernice Low writes on Tete-A-Tech on CNet a much needed, erudite explanation of the current situation that’s going on - TMNet promising unlimited bandwidth, but delivering much less. Although most of us here are probably aware of these issues, its good to have a more elaboration of opinion than the usual “TMNet sucks! Cheat ppl one!” sentiment.

And of course, addresses the whole lame duck argument that TMNet makes for bandwidth throttling - about Bittorrent traffic being illegal, therefore they are justified in blocking it. Interestingly enough, has anyone checked out Bittorrent.com lately? It’s looking less like a free for all piracy fest, and now has a level of legitimacy somewhere between Youtube and the iTunes music store.
Some quotes from the article: “Similarly with a telephone or mobile line. If it is used to harass someone (stalkers, heavy breathing, etc.), does that mean the service provider must be held responsible? “….”In short, it’s none of TM Net’s business what its consumers use their bandwidth and Internet connection for, because TM Net itself will never be made liable for any of those illegal activities.”

And on the issue of service quality:

Quote: “Here’s my theory on what TM Net is doing: It is generating profit or trying to do so by being as measly and Scrooge-like as possible with bandwidth, while charging the maximum public-tolerable amount for that same bandwidth.”
Which brings to mind a very real possibility: TMNet is committing fraud/misrepresentation to its customers.

Though thanks to the wtf inducing “best effort” clause included in every customers agreement, that kind of negates the possibility of legal action. Or does it?

So, what can we do about it, from a legal and consumer standpoint? Your suggestions are welcome.

After having dug to a depth of 1000 meters last year, Swedish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 1000 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the Swedes, in the weeks that followed, English scientists dug to a depth of 2000 meters and shortly after headlines in the UK newspapers read; English archaeologists have found traces of 2000 year old fiber-optic cable and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech digital communications network a thousand years earlier than the Swedes.

One week later, Malaysian newspapers reported the following: After digging as deep as 5000 meters in padi fields in Kedah, Malaysian scientists have found absolutely nothing. They, therefore, have concluded that 5000 years ago, Malaysian’s inhabitants were already using wireless technology.

From the Reapfield Technology Blog.

Since this is a relatively short article, I’m pasting the whole thing in. Certain parts have been bolded for emphasis. Read further on to find out what this could mean for us Malaysians. This article is from the Business Times. Thanks to Paul Tan for the article tip!

Read below:

MALAYSIA is now a step closer to becoming a regional Internet hub, thanks to the partnership between Telekom Malaysia Bhd ™ and Verizon Business.

TM and the US phone firm signed an initial pact to set up a centre in Cyberjaya, which could be jointly operated.

The centre would help attract giant content developers like Google or Yahoo! to host its websites in Malaysia.

For TM, the setting up of the local Internet hub could help save costs “significantly”, said group chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Wahid Omar.

For local Internet surfers, they would be able to open local websites faster and see an improvement in download speed.

“The memorandum of understanding will provide an impetus for Malaysia to become a regional transit hub for global Internet service providers routing traffic.

“In fact, our current Internet traffic in and out of Malaysia is already one of the highest in the region, exceeding some of our more established neighbours,” said Abdul Wahid, who represented TM at the signing ceremony. Representing Verizon Business was its vice president for strategy and finance John Doherty.

Conclusions

In summary, this is good news, for the future. Personally I’m surprised that TM is open to working with a foreign provider. One of the more interesting lines is that Malaysia can become a “regional transit hub for global Internet service providers routing traffic” - this means our packets don’t need to travel from US, to Hong Kong, then to Singapore, then here. Yay! This is perhaps, the most visible benefit so far from the novation of internet services from TMNet, to the parent company TM. (Its doubtful that TM Net would be able to tie up with Verizon). But keep in mind that this is only PLANNED. The word “impetus” basically means potential. Which means that it only means that with this, Malaysia has the potential to become a hub.

The more immediate benefit is merely being able to access local websites faster. Yes, just Malaysian sites. Good news for technopreneurs like myself, and to extent certain internet users who mainly view local content. While I hope that goes through well, I really think the international links (the way Malaysia’s connected to the rest of the world) more than anything else need more attention.

Here’s also the link to the site for Verizon Business Malaysia. Notice the contradiction though - the news report from Business Times says “The centre would help attract giant content developers like Google or Yahoo! to host its websites in Malaysia. ” However, the Verizon Business Malaysia website says ” Verizon Business offers access to its services to non-US based carriers and customers, subject to legal and regulatory requirements and network availability.” So does this mean that the “Google & Yahoo” reference is wrong? (Yes, Yahoo and Google are US based companies, if you didn’t know already).

It remains to be seen though whether TM’s incompetence will infect or hinder its foreign partner…

But congratulations, TM. It’s a good step. You’ve proven yourself better than some other local GLCs who have been shuffling their feet on foreign tieups which would obviously benefit them, due to having misguided notions of nationalism (Proton with Volkswagen, for instance). This is a good move - like DiGi with Telenor, like Celcom with Vodafone.

TM - as the current monopolistic provider of whom we Malaysians have no choice but to use, its nice to see you actually getting better (which would make supporting your monopoly kind of worth it if you could do the whole “smart thinking” and “good service” thing regularly)!

Here’s a pat on the back. Now, back to work. I’ll like to talk you regarding my bandwidth being throttled…

A lot of you are Googling for the results of the WiMax license awardance - in short the people who won were YTL, Greenpacket, Redtone, AsiaSpace (who is AsiaSpace anyway?).

I will be writing more on this, but in the meantime, you can read Jefrey’s take on the winners, and what they said.