Hi guys - sorry, there hasn’t been much updates these few days. We’ve been very busy on another project (which is relevant to this site, more details in a bit). Yes, we’re still arranging interviews with the WiMax winners (good question suggestions!) - most are keen to be interviewed, but its hard to find available dates. We will keep you posted.

As some of you might have noticed, there’s a new thing in the local blogosphera and it’s called Advertlets.com. Besides being made by the same team behind RedesignMalaysia.com, here’s why its interesting: It’ll help you make money with your blog…its good for advertisers to reach a market that watches increasingly less tv, listens to less radio, and doesn’t read much of the papers. And yes - it’s not just by the same team behind RedesignMalaysia, these projects are affiliated.

Thanks to one of our volunteers (a charming and intelligent MIT graduate!), and the work of our team, we have managed to compile, match and process a list of IP address ranges from virtually all Malaysian ISPs, including: TM Net, DiGi Internet Exchange, NasionCom, MaxisNet, Airzed, Time Telekom, NTT MSC / Arc Net, Jaring / MIMOS (MIX), CNX Solutions, EB Technologies, Bizsurf, and more. With these IP range addresses, we can detect which ISP site visitors are using. You can read more on how its used with Advertlets here.

Why is this great for RedesignMalaysia.com?
1. We know what ISP you are using - and can measure popularity of ISPs.
2. In future, when this IP address database becomes larger, and we can geolocate more effectively (eg whether IPs are from Kelana Jaya or Ampang)…we can recommend you the best ISP available for your area - automatically, just by detecting your IP and matching it with other visitors in the area. This can be a combination of consumer ratings (manually submitted by the users), and also automatic speed tests of visitors accessing this site (logging in their page load time, area they are in and ISP used)

Why is this great for Advertlets.com?
1. To deliver targeted advertising to Malaysians only (so advertisers don’t waste their budget, and make their message count to the right people.).
2. To deliver relevant advertising to bloggers based on where they are - making it better for the bloggers and their visitors, and better click through rates for the advertisers due to more relevance.

So, what can RedesignMalaysia and Advertlets do together? (Please add your suggestions via the comments box)
These are a few of the ideas we have:

1. Allow all ISPs in Malaysia besides TMNet Streamyx, to target unhappy TMNet Streamyx Users based on IP - and advertise to them, encouraging them to switch ISPs! , spurring competition and allowing them to compete with Streamyx’s massive advertising budget. Eg, you browse a blog…then you notice a relevant advertisement (based on where you are): “Dear consumer, your connection speed could be 2.5x faster. would you like to try a better broadband service available in your area, Petaling Jaya?”.
2. In real time, monitor the performance of ALL ISPs in Malaysia, and which perform the best in your area (all visitors have to do is access this website and RedesignMalaysia can calculate it automatically)
3. ISPs can use the Advertlets Poll to find out more about what their consumers and potential customers want. Eg, is there demand for 2MBps broadband? How much would you pay for it? For a sample of the poll system, take a look at the “WHO ARE YOU” poll on the right hand side, or go to the Advertlets homepage (it’s on the right sidebar).
4. High traffic bloggers can help advertise the ISP that they are using on their blogs, and get a discount on their monthly broadband access charges.
5. Bloggers can choose to display RedesignMalaysia.com advertising (for free, we don’t have much funding at RedesignMalaysia…), if they have remaining ad space that is unsold. Kind of like how Google shows Public Service Announcements if there are no paying keywords matched to your blog. So, when you’re not earning money, you’re helping raise awareness on how bad broadband is here. Sign up on Advertlets.com and drop me a line if you’re up for that kind of advertising and activism!

Let us know, thanks!

A great, surprisingly unrestrained editorial in The Star. A. Asohan comments in The Star (In Tech), about the recent throttling exercise carried out by Malaysian ISPs. He starts the article with a metaphor as of such: Errant motorists are causing havoc on the roads - so, automobile manufacturers announce that they will limit the maximum speeds of their cars.

It also mentioned there are rumours that TMNet Streamyx might follow Maxis Broadband’s Terms of Service, which include automatic disconnection after a period of inactivity, and a total usage per month limit. (Maxis is 3GB - which is ridiculously low, considering spending a couple of hours on YouTube can easily rack up hundreds of megabytes). This aren’t unfounded rumours - why do you think your disconnections are getting more frequent? And your traffic is being throttled? Why do you think your total monthly usage is showing up in your monthly bill?

Guys. Keep making noise, and let them know that this kind of action will not be tolerated. I have it on good word that TMNet and some of their suppliers monitor this blog. We now get close to 1000 unique visits a day, btw. Nearly half is from Google, consisting of search terms such as “maxis broadband” and “tmnet streamyx”, and the other half is from people like yourselves - the bloggers, the forumites, the gamers and more.

Consider letting (links to contact pages): The Star, The New Straits Times, The Malay Mail, The Edge, Utusan and other media publications know that you’ll like to read more about RedesignMalaysia.com in the papers - we need to take this fight offline, not just on the net.

We need to do this before TMNet starts changings its monthly terms. Not after, which will be too late.

According to this article: “Wimax.com - Malaysia to award 2.3GHz licenses next month”, the delay of awarding the licenses since September 2006 is expected drawing to a close soon. Interesting things noted are that the operator “offering the highest speed at the lowest price” and with a “substantial amount of resources required for a nation wide rollout” will be the one most likely to win, according Malaysian Energy, Water & Communications Minister, Dato Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik. Bidders include Redtone, DiGi and Maxis. Although not noted in the article, Green Packet might be one of the bidders. Another article titled “Foreign firms to build WiMax system in Malaysia” , says that foreign firms Alcatel, Lucent, Redline Communications and local firm Nasioncom are also bidding.

Update: Maxis & Motorola have been testing 4 live trial WiMax sites. They have announced a successful call from the KLCC trial site, and testing for the other trial sites is planned to be completed in the second quarter of 2007.
My personal plea (that I’m sure a lot of you agree with too): Please, Dato Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, let the winner be the ISP that we have all been waiting for.

A consortium of Malaysian ISPs including founding members TM, Jaring & AIMS with peering members Maxis, Time, Digi, Nasioncom, Heitech Padu, MyKris, Airzed, Extreme Broadband, VDSL, EBTech, Freenet, Bizsurf, Paneagle and CNX have come together to launch MyIX - The Malaysia Internet Exchange.

What is MyIX anyway? A summary…

(more…)

We’re trying something new here - and we’ll like to offer a win-win situation for our readers. We are now selling prepaid top up credit for Maxis Hotlink, Celcom Xpax and TM iTalk from RM10-RM60. No need to go to the shops to buy prepaid credit - you can do it from your computer. Got a Maybank account, and e-mail address and a mobile phone? Drop an e-mail to info@redesignmalaysia.com with how much credit you’ll like to buy and we’ll get back to you. After you make payment, you will receive your top-up number via SMS.

Help RedesignMalaysia.com contine to offer broadband news and analysis, cover our hosting and maintenance costs. If we get a good response from this, we will be able to perhaps offer discounts on top up credit in future (eg, buy RM60 worth of credit but pay only RM59.80 - you get a couple of SMS free). Cheers.

 Translation: We have another satellite in space now, and that’s a good thing for broadband here. Malaysia Boleh! Soon we’re going to have a bolehnaut and teh tarik in space too, but that’s a different story.

Translation: This can shape up to be a significant challenge to TM Net Streamyx’s market dominance. As you might notice from this Wikipedia link on Maxis, they basically own Measat-3. Although the main purpose of the satellite is to extend the coverage of sister company Astro’s satellite services, it is very likely that the broadband capabilities of the new satellite will be marketed as under the Maxis Broadband umbrella rather than as an Astro broadband thing. Maxis already has very good dominance in the urban mobile telecommunications sector, so getting existing mobile customers to subscribe to a broadband package shouldn’t be too far a stretch, rather than trying to convince Astro watchers to get broadband. This is purely my speculation, and adding credence to it is the fact that Astro did have a short-lived trial of internet services, but no news has been hard since.

Translation: No more coverage issues. No 5KM radius DSLAM limitation. No more not enough ports problems. No more reliance on old copper cabling. Rather than try to depend on the underground, broadband can now come from the heavens above, and anywhere with a clear line of sight to the sky should be able to receive a satellite broadband signal. Bonus: The launch vehicle of the satellite is called the “Proton Breeze M”. No, it’s not a new car model from national carmarker Proton Berhad, but rather, this link should explain it.

Let’s end with two questions:
1. Do you think satellite broadband internet services are already available currently, as of today, right now? Yes or No? (This one I know the answer to. It might not be what you think. Btw, if the answer is yes, it’s not Measat providing it. If it’s no, then no one lah. What do you think?)
2. If satellite broadband were already available here…how much would you pay per month for a good, steady 1-2MBps connection?

Here are some recent developments in broadband in Malaysia…

In summary: Malaysia lags behind together with Asia, WiMax licenses to be finally issued, a company gets money to develop WiMax technology, and some smart residents decide to take things into their own hands to get broadband in their remote housing area…and make money while doing it!

Josh: And how does Malaysia rank within Asia when it comes to broadband? Hmm.

Josh: Yay. Good, some progress. Now hurry up and issue them already.

Josh: Yay. Good for them. Now hurry up and develop it already.

Josh: This, about the Rawang Township WiFi is amazing news - not only because its a out of the way place getting WiFi, but also the activism demonstrated by the residents. The best way to describe them would be Prosumers.. Producers & Consumers. Knowing that its a slim chance that ISPs would bother to service their area, 5 of them teamed up and formed a company (BTP Wireless Sdn Bhd) to make it possible. What’s also interesting is that they managed to somehow reduce the monthly subscription price (their customers pay RM84 for a an unlimited access 1MBps line, and a MY015 VOIP phone line). The normal price is RM139 without extras.. That’s an RM55 reduction off normal rates and value for money with additional services.

So it’s very likely they brokered a deal where they manage to guarantee a certain number of subscribers in exchange for Jaring providing reduced rates. I hope the people behind BTP Wireless Sdn Bhd get rich for their smart efforts, but of course, they already know they will. With 6,500 existing potential household subscribers, and a 25,000 new houses going to be built in the township by 2008, these guys behind DTP Wireless Sdn Bhd obviously really knew what they were doing. In summary, this kind of activism is what we need more of - consumers not content to just complain, but to take matters into their own hands to change things and ensure it is sustainable as a business. Hopefully the idea demonstrated that you can make a change in the environment you live in, help other people, and be rewarded for it - will encourage more to do things like this. This is the way forward, rather than waiting for sluggish companies or a all-talk-hands-tied organizations to intervene.

That’s a lot of money…

And this is rather good news, actually. Even Energy, Water & Communications Minister Datuk Seri Lim Keng Yaik (center), who’s usually known for criticizing telcos and broadband providers here, is happy and giving the thumbs up, judging from the picture. Maxis is going to spend damn a lot of cash on expanding its 3G network and broadband. This big amounts, of course come with big targets - on the 3G front, they aim to cover 60% of the country’s population by 2009.

Some facts on the numbers:

Maxis current subscribers are 150,000. The population of Malaysia, according to The Department of Statistics is 26,774,352, so 60% of the country is 560,237 people. The increase from 150,000 to 560,237 is 3.73 times. Which means, in 3 years time, they are aiming to nearly quadruple their number of 3G subscribers. Read more for some good news and bad news: What they plan to do with the money, and their unfair terms of service for their broadband users…
(more…)