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.

TM has hit back at allegations that they are competing unfairly against ASPs, claiming that “they have never contravened any MCMC regulations” and that they are “just defending our own business”. This is in response to a pro-tem association of ASPs that claim that TM is implementing a strategy that is unfair and anticompetitive with its members.

Mohamad Taib then directly contradicts himself by saying that ASPs compete against TM’s fixed line call business, and that TM has suffered losses in fixed-line revenues because of this competition - and then goes on to say that “businesses have to innovate and find new paths to move up the value chain.”

Hello TM! Fixed line services, like the ones provided by yourself are nothing innovative, which is why the ASPs can offer something that threatens your dominance - discounted calls and better value for consumers. TM, your business should innovate. For example, voice mail for fixed lines like what you’ve just rolled out is cool - but people have been doing it for years now.

If you haven’t been following, here’s the story in a nutshell. ASPs are companies that offer services like discounted calls and VOIP. They have to get their lines, and services from TM. However, not all ASPs get the same deal. TM’s preferred partners get the best deal, whereelse the rest get higher rates and are forced to subscribe to expensive services they do not need that are packaged together. In a way, TM is controlling the market by proxy, and doing everything they can to squeeze the competition. You have to give TM credit though - they are doing everything they can to come up with innovative new ways to screw their partners, in dubiously legal ways.

TM, when you are both a service provider and a player in the same market, there can be no fair competition, especially since there is such an obvious bias.

In case some of you are wondering - what does this have to do with this website’s focus, which is improving broadband in Malaysia? Well, think about it this way - if ASPs are given fertile ground and a level playing field to compete, they can extend their services from just VOIP and discount calls - they can offer broadband services and compete against TM Net. And that’ll be good news for everyone, except TM.

TM, I have to agree with you on one thing. You have right to compete. But not the right to monopolize.

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.

According to this story on The Star - TM, ASPs in Pricing Tiff,a pro-tem association of ASPs called the Communications & Multimedia Assocation claim that TM is implementing a strategy that is unfair and anticompetitive to its members. For your information, ASPs provide their customers with computer- based services delivered via networks provided by carriers like TM. These services include hosted application software and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications, among others.

The association claims that TM is conducting unfair business practices, stifling competition through monopoly, and breaking Malaysian laws.

(more…)

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.