The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission has released a mandatory standard for Quality of broadband service in Malaysia starting 1 January 2008.

Here are the conclusions(Applies to all ISPs):

• 80% of installation orders must be fulfilled within 24 hours from the time and date requested by the customer.
• 80% of service restoration must be completed within 24 hours from the time and date requested by the customer.
• 90% of billing complaints must be resolved in 15 business days of receipt of the complaint.
• Network latency to the nearest edge node(BRAS), shall be no more than 85ms(95% of the time)
• Bandwidth utilisation between the user and the nearest edge node of the regional broadband network(BRAS) should be no less than 80% of the subscribed level(95% of the me)-it means local sites will load faster
• Packet loss should not exceed 1% between the user and the nearest edge node of the regional broadband network(BRAS)

BRAS-Broadband Remote Access Server

On top of all theses mandatory standards, all ISPs must produce a report to MCMC every six months.

Mandatory Standards for Quality of Service(Broadband Access Service)-PDF file

The question is:

• What if the customers are still not satisfied on the service offered? (MCMC will be judging the service based on the report produced by the ISPs, what about consumers?)
• Do I still pay RM77 when service is always not available, or when the technical guy is taking his sweet time to come over to my place?
• What happens to the ISPs if the mandatory standards are not fulfilled?
• Why “best effort” still remains? Does MCMC support these terms?
• Why wait until January,2008? Does it mean that we will suffer until then and no action can be taken on the ISP?

Comments are most welcomed.

Update: You can read more on this at : http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/486176

This comes as a surprise, as I was expecting some of the WiMax people to roll out first. Nothing glamourous though, access speeds are comparable to Streamyx (1-megabit per second access speed), covering Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Cheras and Ampang. Very basic details are available from The Star. It is based on the iBurst technology, which you can read more about here - Wikipedia: iBurst

However, the ever helpful techies at Lowyat and MalaysiaWireless have some things to say:

Pros

Rajulkabir quotes on Lowyat.net that “Good news about them is that they do not seem to be connected through TMnet, so their connection to the rest of the world might not suck:”. He has also posted a traceroute that seems to confirm it.

Small thing, but iZZi shows big thinking. Someone’s putting in effort, they have a Google Maps mashup of their coverage area. As a web designer I must also say their website is not bad (well structured, good use of pictures of pretty girls using laptops), but they could get better hosting (several timeouts occured while accessing the site).

Cons

Price. JinXXX says: “holy shit..its super super expensive…” You can see the prices here at MalaysianWireless - iZZi Iburst Mobile Wireless Broadband. Investigating more on the Lowyat thread seems to hint that you need to pay upfront for the whole year. That means you need to fork out more than RM1K before you get any service.

The fine print: “Please note that a variety of factors can affect whether or not any location can connect to the iZZi network. Being within range of a iZZi coverage area does not guarantee that you will be able to connect to the iZZi network. “Â …Then what guarantees it?

General conclusion

It will definitely work well for a few rich people..who live in already well connected areas. What about the rest? Coverage areas need to increase, but the real question here is - can they deliver what they promise? If they can, I’ll rather pay iZZi than Streamyx. At comparable monthly price ranges (discounting the fact that you need to pay upfront), it may be more worth it to switch.

I will be adding this to the ISP list soon, but in the meantime do let me know of your experience using iZZi, if anyone has signed up already.
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Here’s a challenge to iZZi! RedesignMalaysia.com, located in Kelana Jaya will stress test your ISP’s service to the maximum as well as real world testing trials and post reviews on your service (no guarantee whether favourable or critical) in exchange for 1 year’s free access (inclusive of everything). If you’re confident and up for it, e-mail me at info@redesignmalaysia.com