I’m sure a lot of you would have heard about the “Call 100″ promotion that TM is currently running, where they say you can call one number to reach all things TM - Celcom, Let’s Talk, TM Net, TM Home Line, etc. Recently I had to try it, about a week ago, but ended up having to call TM Net directly.

Hotline:

100 - this didn’t work, although I selected TM Net, it lead to a perpetually busy tone.
1300881515 - this worked.

I don’t see why this should be happening. Lack of integration perhaps?
Website:

http://tm.net.my - this doesn’t work - leads to a server not found page
http://www.tm.net.my - this works

It should be standard practice to also have a domain accessible even without the www.
On the brighter side, I dropped by a TM Point recently, and I would say their new Payment Kiosk is pretty alright, tested that out too to pay my TM Net bill, since my account was deactivated, and after I made the payment, an hour or two after that my account was activated again, without me having to call them to notify that I made my payment. That was a pleasant surprise. However, their other channels need some work.

PUTRAJAYA: Fortunately, it was a trial run. A video conference between the health minister and the Terengganu state health director descended into a farce as the two were unable to communicate.
At one point, minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek told Dr Nordianah Hassan to “stand still and speak into the microphone … I can’t hear what you’re saying”.

Dr Chua was launching the ministry’s RM2 million National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) at its Disease Control Division with a mock video conference with Dr Nordianah about an outbreak of upper respiratory tract infection among the students of two schools.

Her voice, sometimes loud, sometimes soft, and at times completely inaudible, Dr Nordianah had to repeat her presentation twice because of a poor connection.

Finally, a frustrated Dr Chua gave up and moved on to complete his schedule at the CPRC — with a few choice words for the telecommunications authorities.

“Malaysian telephone lines need to be upgraded. It’s the truth. It’s so difficult to get a clear line,” he fumed.
You can read more here, “Video Conference Becomes a Farce” at The New Straits Times. Does anyone know whether this video conferencing was over an internet connection (Computers, Streaming) or over normal telephone lines (Video Phone Hardware)? I know it mentions in the article that it is “telephone lines”, however, was it really, or was it video streaming over a “broadband” connection? How advanced is this technology used, really? And of course - who’s to blame?

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!

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.

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 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…)

Malaysians are “text maniacs”, say today’s Malay Mail. Apparently, 21 million of us cell phone users, send out 84 million text messages out daily. And assuming each SMS costs 10 sen, Malaysians are spending about RM8.4 million a day! And this is without factoring in premium sms at all.
How much do Malaysians pay for broadband per day? Yes, we know you are billed monthly. Let’s calculate just how much TMNet Streamyx subscribers spend, since they have the vast majority of market share.The last verified number of Streamyx subscribers was 732,000, according to TM’s news release. Let’s try some very conservative estimates. The lowest package for Streamyx is RM20 (Basic 384Kfor 10 hours), and the highest is RM1188 (2MBps Corporate). The bulk of users would presumably be the RM77 and RM88 ones.

Hence:

Per month: RM77.00 x 732,000 = RM56,364,000.00 = RM56 million
Per day:RM56,364,000.00 divided by 30 days (1 month) = RM1,878,800.00 = RM1.87 million
Per Year: RM676,368,000.00 = RM 676 million.

732,000 TMNet subscribers pay TM Net a total of RM 1.87 million a day collectively.

Its quite obvious that TMNet is doing well. Last year, in September 2006, the Internet & Multimedia division of TM (presumably TMNet), recorded a profit of RM626 million.

Readers: How much do you think TMNet spends on marketing…and how much do you think they spend upgrading their services? Does anyone here have access to any figures?

Please also feel free to correct my math or assumptions if you think they are erroneous.

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…)