There’s a new site up at www.saveandinvest.my . The purpose of the site is to encourage Malaysians to save money, and share their tips with others.

The part which I feel might interest you is the following: The prize of free broadband for a year - a 1 yearsubscription to Celcom Broadband for the best tips submitted.

I’ve posted up two tips so far: (go vote for them!)

Phone Bills : TM Net Streamyx Combo for new residences (waive fixed line rental fee)
It links back to this site (of course, haha), which shares the list of ISPs with pricings.

General : List of broadband service providers in Malaysia with prices
Two, a tip on how you can save on your phone bills through the TMNet Streamyx Combo which waives your fixed line bills.

Check out the site, and do post your own tips as well. I’ll be just as happy if one of the blog readers here read this.

Will be posting more broadband tips soon Including how to choose your broadband provider and cut down your costs, various pricings of broadband service providers compared, and more.

Meantime, you can check out also what some other Advertlets Bloggers have to say about the site:

Party girl Amanda Choe shares how you can get unique pieces and lower prices at flea markets
Naomi Tham writes about how sleeping early can save you money.
Student LogicYuan is smart and suggests charging your phone at work/at school.
UncleJosh talks about the growing global financial slowdown and offers some tips on how to go on dates cheaper
AprilCherrie takes you on a step by step tutorial on how to post up your tips on the site

Till then, cheers.

Here’s a roundup of some interesting articles…and my sarcastic or insightful comments:

“WiMax operating license was issued two years ago to four local operators namely AsiaSpace, Green Packet, Redtone and YTL.
However, it took sometime for these companies to roll out the network as they were waiting for Equipment Vendors to complete market ready non-standard 2.3Ghz Radio Base Station Equipment and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) in to production….At the same time the government is awarding a RM 11 Billion HSBB project to Telekom Malaysia to provide really High Speed Boroadband Service using fiber optic.”

Above from Dixonian:
Josh: is “Boroadband” a typo, or was it done on purpose? Think - what does “boro” sound like? Eg, “Boro” la you!

“The company Motorola announced that REDtone, a leading Malaysian provider of telecommunication services and solutions put into operation first in East Malaysia broadband network WiMAX.”

Above from: Justamp
Josh: East Malaysia has a very rural infrastructure that makes it especially suited to Wimax. To get around East Malaysia (at least the less urban areas), you need a boat or a 4X4.

“Will this happen in Malaysia? - Reports of critical interference with TV broadcasts in Hong Kong by broadband wireless systems in the satellite C-band frequency are on the rise.”

Above from: Remgold
Josh: Astro how liddat? Want to access net, cannot watch satellite TV? Die!

The obvious solution to this problem is to allow the Satellite providers to operate on a higher/wider frequency (which means you have to update your Satellite Dish) - but this also means you have access to more bands and immoral and decadent Western TV filth from the United States. (and also, broadcasts from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, etc).

Have you wondered why our Satellite Dishes (Astro, for example, and there isn’t any other example) are so small compared to other countries? Any bigger, and they can receive transmissions from countries further than Malaysia. It is important to note that this limit was effected not for technical reasons, but for other reasons. Can you guess why?

“New kids on the block. Wimax is making its presence in this Multimedia Super Corridor that does not keep its promises on the 10 point Bills of Rights. Yes, Wimax is coming to town….Now that I knew the fee, it seems that W1max will not be in my list of priorities anymore.”

Above from:Xprienceoflife
Josh: Yes, it is rather expensive…

This news struck me as a surprise, and was relatively quietly announced - I didn’t get to know about it until someone told me recently.

Apparently, TM is the lead player in a consortium to implement an Asia-US submarine cable, formed by AT&T Inc. (USA), Bharti AirTel (India), Government of Brunei Darussalam (Brunei), British Telecom Global Network Services (UK), CAT Telekom (Thailand), Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (Philippines), Indosat (Indonesia), Pacific Communications Pte Ltd (Cambodia), Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co. (Philippines), PT Telkom (Indonesia), Saigon Postal Corporation (Vietnam), StarHub (Singapore), Telstra (Australia), Telecom New Zealand International (New Zealand), Viettel (Vietnam) and Vietnam Post & Telecommunications Group of Vietnam (Vietnam).

The cable is called the AAG, or Asia America Gateway. The AAG will provide a seamless direct link between the US and other Asian countries via one single cable. It also has the ability to be expanded to Australia, India, Africa, and Europe. Spanning over 20,000 km, AAG will link Malaysia to the US via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the West coast of the US. The cable system is designed to provide a capacity of up to 1.92 Terabits per second of data bandwidth.
It will have an initial capacity of 480Gbps.

TM holds 9% in the equity of the project (majority shareholder). The contract is worth approximately $US500 Million. (Which means TM’s 9% equity is $US45 million / RM157million).

A quote from CEO, Datuk Abdul Wahid Omar: “While we are present in 13 countries in the region and involved in seven existing major submarine cable consortiums, this initiative is still one of the biggest we have undertaken. It will provide TM with additional 60Gbps of capacity, which will help reduce any future potential congestion we may face.”

Another quote: As the AAG is from a single cable network, not only will it have improvements in lowering latency, it will also simultaneously ramp up the international bandwidth capacity to Malaysia at more competitive costs.”

“This impressive joint-effort will go a long way in increasing broadband uptake in this region, which will in turn increase the overall appeal for global investments and increase the competitiveness of the countries benefiting from direct links to the Asia-America Gateway,”

Analysis: Assuming this goes well, Malaysia will surpass Singapore and Thailand in being a regional hub. That means, just like how Malacca was a hub for international trade in the days of yore, Malaysia could be come a hub for international traffic.

Congratulations TM! Let’s hope this happens soon, and that we can see some speed improvements by early next year. My internet connection is getting slower as of late…and from the news article, this project is scheduled to be completed only by December 2008…

You can read more here, on IT Wire, or on TM’s press release section on its official website.

You might be either surprised, or not surprised at all, but Earl’s connection speed is back to terrible again.

The Lowyat.net boys have their say on earlier visit here: TMNet CEO Visits Streamyx Customer, Earl-Ku’s House

Rigged? TC_Boy has this to say: “There was an article posted here (on Lowyat.net) before about how ISPs usually mark certain ips to be given max bandwidth & high priority because it belongs to broadband speed test sites. They have fooled the user and the press. The speed maybe for real too but only for him or his DSLAM.”

Hmm…

The Story In Summary:

1. Earl, not happy with TMNet, wrote a letter to The Malay Mail
2. The Malay Mail published the letter.
3. He got a couple of phone calls.
4. Next thing he knows, the CEO of TMNet is in his house, sitting on his bed
5. Earl shows the CEO his connection speed of 10-12kB/s
6. CEO plugs in his own laptop and gets 160-170kB/s
7. When Earl asked…how can the speed be so different?
8. They said its maybe because of “spyware”, or his “processor”.
9. Earl is still not happy.
10. Earl tests his connection again later in the day.
11. His speed is now 130-155 kB/s. Wow.
12. My speed still sucks.
13. So, when can I expect a visit?

Consumers, getting faster broadband speeds with Streamyx is now easy. Just sign up with your nearest friendly Streamyx reseller. Then, after you’ve set up your connection, all you have to do is write a letter, get it published, get the CEO of TMNet to show up in your house, and your connection will be super fast!

PS: Earl is not making the whole story up. I have a few of the same namecards and have spoken to a few of the same people, and spoken to him on the phone regarding this issue.

Earl’s latest result:

My latest result:

Do I get a visit too? Please?

Consumers: Here’s an important thing to note. (Update: yes guys, my mistake, its capitalization not the / that marks the difference. I’m happily surprised two of you noticed it, and just to be clear, as you said: “Kb/s or Kbps is the same thing.. the different is kBps or kB/s where the former is bits and the latter is Bytes. Notice the capital B for bytes.”) Use this to convert if you’re not sure.

Also, if you want to do a speed test on Speedtest.net, use an international server, not a local one. Local servers are much faster, and don’t give you a “true” idea of what the speed of your connection is to the outside world.

Here’s also some “insider” information I know, draw your own conclusions.

- VPS services, can bypass traffic shaping or throttling or speed limiting utilities.
- There is a certain allocation of bandwidth in Malaysia for “VIP” users that remains strictly allocated for those usrs, whether or not the “VIP” users are using it or not.

TMNet’s getting smarter
Back to the topic. So, what do you think is happening here? One thing’s pretty surprising though - TMNet is actually getting pretty smart at this (my personal congratulations to you, “A.B”, no malice intended), and it was a well planned “ambush”. From what Earl told me, TMNet brought some journalists and photographers as well with them when the CEO came to Earl’s house. And there was no prior warning that the CEO and everyone was going to be there. Earl was told that only a technician would be coming - not the whole entourage.

Which sucks, because the plan was to have myself and other people to test the connection as well, on our own hardware and make note of any special settings that they might have configured during the event…the secret “unlock” mechanism? As I’ve heard a rumour that some people have bribed TMNet technicians to improve their individual connections, which means that there is some “hidden” bandwidth available.

I would dismiss the whole thing as PR spin and VPS tomfoolery, but the fact is seriously, his connection is fast now. Congratulations, TMNet. And congratulations, Earl!

But where does that leave everybody else? Normal consumers?
This leaves me with the following possible conclusions:

- Although each subscriber is promised unlimited bandwidth, not everyone gets it.
- It could be because it’ll cost more to actually deliver the service as promised to consumers.
- Prominent complainers could get better connections, as then TMNet has no choice.
- So, do you know what to do next? Start writing…

In conclusion, here’s a quote made by TMNet, taken slightly out of context as the speaker was referring to P2P. However, could the same thing apply to even normal usage? Think of it, and remember that the Internet And Multimedia business of TM’s revenue contribution was RM869.9 million for Q4 2006.

“we cannot upgrade our infrastructure (merely) for the benefit of the minority.”

And my closing comment? Sure you can, just take a bit off the marketing budget. And how much is too much? Given the current situation, I think TMNet can afford to spend a lot more. When in doubt, remember that South Korea only became the most advanced broadband nation simply because the goverment was willing to go into debt and temporarily, for a while have more broadband supply than there was demand - the price for progress is expensive, but you’re a GLC, you can afford it! Please

Footnote (and this is also to A.B as well): No disrespect intended to TMNet, I think it was a good thing that the effort was taken to address the situation (although I disagree with the means slightly), but wouldn’t it be great to also address complaints online, not just those that appear in the mainstream media? There has not been one official reply to any comments here, even though it has been nearly a year since this site has been online…

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

I used to think that Singaporeans get a better deal (compared to Malaysia) when it came to telecommunication services, as they were a country with double our broadband penetration, and better technology laid out (fiber vs copper), as well as better competition between companies.

However, it appears they suffer due to a monopoly as well.

Check out Consumers United Against Starhub Price Hike

Here’s an excerpt. Sounds a lot like what we’ve been saying too, strangely enough.

This is THE time we, the consumers, stand UNITED and send a strong message to monopolistic businesses and instituitions in Singapore, which constantly subject us to price hikes and unfair business practices.

These are the following reasons on where we stand and why YOU should sign on this petition:

1. Starhub’s terms and conditions are unfair and baised against the consumer. We should be allowed avenues to terminate the contract in the event of price hike, without incurring penalties.

2. New price hike should apply to new sign-ups only, and NOT to consumers with existing contracts.

I love this part in particular…what if we did the same to TMNet?

4. Finally, we urged all Starhub cable TV subscribers to continue paying the current rate for their subscribtion and ignore the price hike until Starhub has given us, the consumers, a satisfactory response to our complaints.

On the other hand here’s some good news. Malaysians note - our cable coverage for football is the best in the region. Malaysia (Astro) beats Singapore, Indonesia, & Thailand! Check this out - “Malaysian Sports cable TV Viewers Get Best Deal“. Thanks to IZ for the tip.

Looking at the following URLs, StreamyxSucks.com and Sohai Streamyx Technician…

You begin to wonder whether there’s a better way to improve the situation than just complaining.

Here are a few:

- Go for the competition. Visit the ISP Page. Tell ALL your friends - there are more than 16 ISPs in Malaysia. Not one.
- Be persistent. Find shortcuts. Bypass authority. Fixed your Streamyx problems? Tell people exactly how you managed to get around it.
- Volunteer. Think you can do a better job? Volunteer part time at the Streamyx call centre.
- If you’ve got lots of money - support RedesignMalaysia. We don’t make much from this. Or invest in up and coming broadband companies.
- If you have media - interview us. Highlight the situation. Did you know there are financial penalties for certain companies under Streamyx if the complaint reaches the media?
- Any more suggestions?