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.

There’s going to be a gathering of more than 100 Malaysian bloggers this weekend, and we’re going to be there too!

We at Josh Lim & Associates will be exhibiting our latest project - an asian blog advertising network, Advertlets.com.

Other than that, we’ll also be spreading awareness about the lack of proper broadband facilities in Malaysia - and yes, that’s this very site, RedesignMalaysia.com.

Be there! Its happening on 9th March 2007, Federal Hotel, KL, 6PM Onwards! Read here and here for more details.

Just a side note about Advertlets.com - it’s basically a blog advertising network, where its killer feature is real time demographics, through the use of polling. The poll engine is particularly impressive, and formed the bulk of the development - you can test it out right here on this site, by scrolling down and looking for the Personal Survey / Advertlets logo. Main reason is, demographics help make advertising messages count - as there’s no point advertising on a site when you have no idea who the visitors area.

And of course, you’re probably wondering what RedesignMalaysia has to do with Advertlets - firstly, both are initiatives from the same company. Which means that when Advertlets takes off - so does the fight for better broadband in Malaysia.

A question for the bloggers here :

1. Do you have a high traffic blog?
2. Are you currently involved in any blog/website advertising programs?
3. If you could make money advertising on your blog, what kind of percentage of the total profits you make would you consider to sponsor RedesignMalaysia? 10%? 25%? 50%? (If you’re wondering what RedesignMalaysia needs your sponsorship for, read here and here. The funds would be used to continually develop the site, including advanced features such as community network monitoring/choose the best ISP for your area, and also to run media awareness campaigns to put pressure on service providers.)

Paul Ooi writes about tips and tricks on calling TMNet Streamyx’s call center. It’s riddled with sarcasm and profanity, but if you read closely enough, it might be of use to you if you have problems connecting. Eg, if you say that you are a “network engineer” they will not ask you stupid basic questions.

And, the people at the Lowyat Forums have the following posts: Default router username/passwords (just in case anyone forgets!) and things to do to self investigate for Streamyx-related problems and subsequent troubleshooting. In case of “emergency”, there are also some proxies you can use, which might result in a faster connection. If you keep getting disconnected, try check out your SNR (signal to noise ratio) Margin.

And, you can try some of the steps here to unblock Bittorrent traffic.

Just wondering, for you people - which is/was faster (please answer based on your personal experience): Waiting for TMNet to help you, or Googling around for the answer?

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.

From the papers:

Apparently, 62% of Malaysian adults access the internet directly, either at home or at work, as of June 2006. 7% are regular users who use the Net at least once a week, 55% percent have occasional Net access and 41% percent do not directly use it. That makes it an average of six in ten Malaysian adults logging on to the internet.

I wonder how many toddlers/kids/teens access the internet?

And from the blogs:

The Silent Room has some tips on how to improve your torrential potential, and so does Havuk, whose solution is to remain anonymous.

“Engrish writer” at hot.com.my reports that there were 3 major outages in half a day on February 5th 2007 in Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s supposed technology hub. But for some reason, there was one day where he could get “3.4 million terabytes per second”.

Fendy, whose blog tagline is “I learned it the hard way, now I’m going to share it with ya…”, shows us the fastest way to make Streamyx available at home. It involves applying for Streamyx, waiting for 3 days, finding out that your house is out of the 5km radius, and then, threatening to cancel. Quote: “When I told them to cancel my application, I figured that they weren’t willing to lose a customer and at the same time lose the commission fee out of it.”

Ashotiwoth troubleshoots like a pro, and still hasn’t got above 70% of the required speed.

Jase Lee is “real pissed off the way these TM people are handling their customers“, and decided to e-mail all the bigshots with a detailed complaint. A response is pending.

Lastly, Teh Shu Jia seems to have written something in chinese on Streamyx’s “best effort”. An autotranslated to English version is here.

I am aware that some of you have social lives and girlfriends, besides the time you spend surfing, gaming and using up all of TMNet’s bandwidth

Hence, I would like to present this: Valentine’s Day Special - YvonneFoong.com. Trouble thinking of what to get your girlfriend for Valentine’s day? Get a lovely necklace which consists of “Blue Venetian glass beads in heart shape, Aurora Borealis coated Swarovski Crystals, and silver tone ball chain” - and you also get a free book. All below RM31.

Why? First, the necklace is nice. Second, you get a book free. Third, you help Yvonne Foong, which suffers from the incredibly rare Neurofibromatosis Type 2 tumours. (Only 1 other person in Malaysian has it.) Fourth, when your girlfriend finds out where you bought it from, she will think you are such a sweet person, and this earns you some points on her good side.

Go to Yvonne’s site and place your order!