This might either be good news…or bad news. Now that Dato Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, has stepped down as Gerakan chief, do you think he will be able to be as openly critical of the telcos? Remember - he retains his post as the Energy, Water and Communications minister. Or would it make him even more fearless in his criticism, as he has nothing to lose anymore? We will wait and see.

FYI to the readers: Read this article, there is a recent quote by Dato Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik:

“Now you know why we distribute the WiMAX licences to the small companies… the big fellows, including the TM already have the 2.5GHz. Why you want the 2.3 GHz when you can roll out the WiMAX via 2.5GHz?,”

Yes, apparently this is how he actually speaks in real life. Kudos to that. It’s a lot clearer than most would dare to be. The awardance of WiMax licenses is to smaller companies is good news. To understand the motivation behind licenses and why its such a big deal (and a good thing did TM didn’t get 2.3 GHz) - it doesn’t just allow you to do something. Remember, if you get it, no one else can get it, even if you do nothing with it. Also, if you decide to do anything with it you can resell it or outsource the implementation…

From the same article, Celcom’s Chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly was quoted saying:“There is a window of opportunity for us to grab before the WiMax players come in. We have to grab the window as quickly as possible.”

Let’s hope everyone grabs the window, including TM and the other WiMax players, if only for the sake of competition. TM, we’re quite confident you can launch WiMax. After all, you already have an impressive track record in rolling out things - About 80% of of Malaysian broadband consumers use TM Streamyx, even if it is oversubscribed, under capacity, inefficient, and with terms of service that shortchange your customers. We’re confident of you accomplishing the same with TM WiMax! When you roll out, consumers now have will have the amazing freedom of surfing slowly like Streamyx users…but without wires! Amazing! Hooray!

More seriously though, lets look at this article and take note of the things that should happen - and let’s see what will.

- All the winners of the WiMax license are expected to quickly roll out the service to 25 percent of the population in the area given to them by end of this year, with a service provision of at least 1MBps at affordable rates.

- It is expected that they will be able to roll services to at least 40 percent of the population in the areas given to them

- Each of the companies is expected to invest between RM250 million and RM300 million in the first three years of the WiMax implementation.

In closing, dear Dato Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik - please make sure of these things happen. You have been one of the most vocal (not to mention “official”) critics of the people responsible for slow rollout in broadband here, and for that we thank you, and urge you not to stop.

A lot of people here (well, maybe not here, but in Malaysia) don’t really know what it is exactly you do, but wouldn’t it be great if you left a legacy as the guy who fought for better Malaysian broadband services, and won? We hope to immortalize you one day as “Bapa Jalurlebar”…

Since this is a relatively short article, I’m pasting the whole thing in. Certain parts have been bolded for emphasis. Read further on to find out what this could mean for us Malaysians. This article is from the Business Times. Thanks to Paul Tan� for the article tip!

Read below:

MALAYSIA is now a step closer to becoming a regional Internet hub, thanks to the partnership between Telekom Malaysia Bhd ™ and Verizon Business.

TM and the US phone firm signed an initial pact to set up a centre in Cyberjaya, which could be jointly operated.

The centre would help attract giant content developers like Google or Yahoo! to host its websites in Malaysia.

For TM, the setting up of the local Internet hub could help save costs “significantly”, said group chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Wahid Omar.

For local Internet surfers, they would be able to open local websites faster and see an improvement in download speed.

“The memorandum of understanding will provide an impetus for Malaysia to become a regional transit hub for global Internet service providers routing traffic.

“In fact, our current Internet traffic in and out of Malaysia is already one of the highest in the region, exceeding some of our more established neighbours,” said Abdul Wahid, who represented TM at the signing ceremony. Representing Verizon Business was its vice president for strategy and finance John Doherty.

Conclusions

In summary, this is good news, for the future. Personally I’m surprised that TM is open to working with a foreign provider. One of the more interesting lines is that Malaysia can become a “regional transit hub for global Internet service providers routing traffic” - this means our packets don’t need to travel from US, to Hong Kong, then to Singapore, then here. Yay! This is perhaps, the most visible benefit so far from the novation of internet services from TMNet, to the parent company TM. (Its doubtful that TM Net would be able to tie up with Verizon). But keep in mind that this is only PLANNED. The word “impetus” basically means potential. Which means that it only means that with this, Malaysia has the potential to become a hub.

The more immediate benefit is merely being able to access local websites faster. Yes, just Malaysian sites. Good news for technopreneurs like myself, and to extent certain internet users who mainly view local content. While I hope that goes through well, I really think the international links (the way Malaysia’s connected to the rest of the world) more than anything else need more attention.

Here’s also the link to the site for Verizon Business Malaysia. Notice the contradiction though - the news report from Business Times says “The centre would help attract giant content developers like Google or Yahoo! to host its websites in Malaysia. ” However, the Verizon Business Malaysia website says ” Verizon Business offers access to its services to non-US based carriers and customers, subject to legal and regulatory requirements and network availability.” So does this mean that the “Google & Yahoo” reference is wrong? (Yes, Yahoo and Google are US based companies, if you didn’t know already).

It remains to be seen though whether TM’s incompetence will infect or hinder its foreign partner…

But congratulations, TM. It’s a good step. You’ve proven yourself better than some other local GLCs who have been shuffling their feet on foreign tieups which would obviously benefit them, due to having misguided notions of nationalism (Proton with Volkswagen, for instance). This is a good move - like DiGi with Telenor, like Celcom with Vodafone.

TM - as the current monopolistic provider of whom we Malaysians have no choice but to use, its nice to see you actually getting better (which would make supporting your monopoly kind of worth it if you could do the whole “smart thinking” and “good service” thing regularly)!

Here’s a pat on the back. Now, back to work. I’ll like to talk you regarding my bandwidth being throttled…

I was just searching around on theedgedaily.com, and I came across an interesting piece of news - TheEdgeDaily : Gov’t may allow foreign broadband providers.

Apparently, according to the article: the government may allow new local and foreign players to provide broadband service if the existing ones do not make the service more affordable and improve the infrastructure.

The article also states a quote from Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik: - “The directive from the Prime Minster is that national development plans override all business considerations.”

Seems like great news, doesn’t it? It’s about time! Competition will shake things up here! But guess which year the article is from? This year, 2007? Late 2006, maybe? Nope.

The article was from the year 2004.

Yet we don’t have a single formidable foreign player now, do we? Sigh.

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…)

A question for all visitors. Assuming you had a budget of RM3.5 billion, and the relevant governing agencies working with you, as well as access to the media to influence the public (newspapers, TV, etc). Also assuming that you have power over the ISPs and can revoke their licenses, or penalize them.

What would you do to improve the following items?

1. Broadband penetration in Malaysia.
   Currently at about only 2%.
2. Broadband coverage in Malaysia.
   Affluent areas like Kelana Jaya & Bandar Utama are well covered…what about the rest?
3. Broadband quality of service in Malaysia.
   Ever met a happy Streamyx user?
4. Broadband service pricing in Malaysia.
   Shouldn’t it be cheaper than your household electricity bill?�

And so you understand the situation, some statistics (PDF Format)

Household Internet Usage Survey 2005 (MCMC)
The National Broadband Plan (MCMC & KTAK)

And some of my thoughts:

1. It’ll probably be best� to start with a plan for the� Klang Valley. Its where its most needed. Remember, dialup penetration throughout Malaysia is surprsingly, 14%.
2. The more customers there are in a serviced area, the more the ISP profits. See this, and this (under the Business section).
3. Should there be penalties for ISPs that fail to meet expectations? And how harsh should they be? The link provided deals with water issues. Broadband falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Energy, Water & Telecommunications.
4. Singaporeans can get 5Mbps at S$ 49.95 a month. Which is more likely to happen here, assuming that we have ISPs providing 5 Mbps packages: RM116.61 (currency conversion)� for 5Mbps, or RM49.95 (dollar for dollar)� for 5Mbps?

What do you think, people? Leave your comments - clicking on “comments”, think carefully, and then type away…

Josh Lim

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…)

As a members of the public,� we are left to� wonder why there is such a wide disparity between supposedly “official” statistics. So, who’s right? Read more in the Features section of Redesign Malaysia…