Based on the description of this product on the Green Packet website, the SONmetro 212A Subscriber Unit, and my conversations with one anonymous reseller, it’s possible that Green Packet might launch 3MBps consumer wireless broadband packages this year. The technology looks very interesting in theory - seems to be mostly immune to line of sight or signal strength/velocity issues. Read this excerpts: “receiving data from tens of different neighbors from different locations per second while driving”, “one can still communicate over 1.5Mbps while traveling at speed up to 300 km/hour“.

So, in theory, you could be downloading some data pretty quickly, and driving above 3 times the local highway limit at the same time. Wow!

As a marketing person and occasional Ah Beng, I imagine a great publicity stunt they could use to launch the service, involving a professional driver, a sports car, some drifting, a series of internal cameras (one pointed at the laptop, more mounted on the car roof and hood), a heavily strapped in laptop user in the back seat, and a nice, empty stretch of road and a live broadcast.

To Green Packet readers (and particularly to Michael Lai): If you use the idea, be sure to give us credit (and we take cash too, haha.) Oh, and I wouldn’t mind being the strapped in laptop user even, if you get both a really good driver and my blood type on file as well…

Sure, we were late on the news of his resignation, but I hope we’ve redeemed ourselves by being one of the first to tell you where he’s going next.According to an industry insider (from a company working closely with Green Packet), after resigning as CEO of TMNet, Michael Lai will join the highly hyped Green Packet Berhad. No word yet on his position, but speculation says he might be the new CEO.

He might make quite a difference, judging by the some favourable comments from industry people. Michael is currently on holiday and not in KL. Word is he left TM Net because of unfair corporate structure - underlings were promoted, and key performance indicators for the National Broadband Plan are no longer in his hands, making his role very small.

It is also said that there will no new CEO replacing Michael Lai (there is a current acting CEO, a Malay lady named Zainab Hashim), as there is no need to - operations of TM Net will be going to the main TM Group. Products and marketing of Streamyx will go to TM Retail, and Technical & Content will go to TM Wholesale (who has been doing a shitty job as of late.) TMNet will be handling content like BlueHyppo & the music portal.

However, the industry insider goes on to say that Streamyx will improve drastically in a year - this new restructuring will bring younger people to the helm (between 30-40), to replace the traditional guys. And…it won’t be called TM Net Streamyx anymore - it will be TM Streamyx.

Green Packet Berhad is pretty well backed, with support from Energy, Water & Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik. To quote Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik: “Green Packet had proven itself to be one of Malaysia’s technology companies with an impressive track record locally and was also creating a significant impact in international telecommunication services. ” Check out this link on The Star - Landmark Green Packet Deal and this link, on Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia. You can also see their corporate fact sheet on GreenPacket.com.

So, will Green Packet be able to “gerak” broadband to the “Rakyat”? They will benefit from Michael’s marketing savvy (as who else knows the weaknesses of the main monopoly ISP better?), but let’s hope their service holds up as well. Congratulations to Michael Lai, and Green Packet.

More updates as times goes by…remember nothing here is guaranteed to be accurate, and is based on speculation and insider info. Let’s hope this new round of restructuring in TM and Green Packet will bring about some much needed change to us, the broadband users.

Here’s an interesting idea. If you have connection problems with Streamyx, don’t give up until you try the suggestion below. It worked for Noorhidayat Noordin, and it just might work for you too.

Bypass Authority - E-mail CEO of TMNet Directly
You can e-mail the CEO of TMNet, Michael Lai at this e-mail address: ceo@tmnet.com.my. These are more of Mr Michael Lai’s profile and contact details.

Out of courtesy, I would suggest you e-mail, not call. He does check his e-mail, and I can personally attest to that. Remember its ceo@tmnet.com.my, not ceo@tm.net.my

Sidenote: Thanks to the anonymous reader who alerted me to the blog link of Noorhidayat Noordin. But please note, (to all readers too) if you do want me to reply to you, do leave your e-mail lah, don’t just fill in the comments…

Josh Lim

Jeff Ooi of JeffOoi.com fame is organizing a Streamyx User Group Meeting for users from the Klang Valley on September 15th 2006. This is an excellent opportunity for your views to be heard, so do come in person - don’t ask someone else to go for you, or pass the message along to me to pass along to them, get what I mean? Its not going to be just a PR thing with a customer service representative - the CEO of TMNet, Michael Lai will be there, as well as heads of various departments within TMNet. An overview of what the Streamyx User Group is for (excerpts from Jeff Ooi’s first post on the subject of the Streamyx user focus group and the second post on the upcoming meeting)

So, do take part in the Streamyx User Group. Details are available here at JeffOoi.com - Streamyx User Group meeting confirmed. If you are curious as to how the previous event went last year, you can check it out here at BrandMalaysia.com - Bloggers Clicked With TMNet. If you are confirmed to come for the event, let us know too (cc your RSVP e-mail to info@redesignmalaysia.com). Let’s take a proactive step for better broadband, not just complain about it.

Josh

Overall broadband Internet penetration is between 6% and 7% currently from 4% earlier in the year, said TM Net Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Michael Lai.

Read the full article at The Edge Daily

According to Lai, hard disk failure was the cause of the incident which occurred at 9am on March 30, which affected some 5,000 of TM Net’s active e-mail service customers. The problem was resolved within three hours, he said.

Read the full article at The Star Online Tech Central

KOTA BAHARU, Feb 28 (Bernama) — TMNet Streamyx subscribers reached the 500,000 mark nationwide early this year through various innovative products and improved services.

TMNet Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Michael Lai said the company has set a target of one million subscribers by end of this year.

Lai said the company would continue with its efforts as the pioneer broadband services provider to cover all segments of society.

“This is in line with the government’s aim under the National Broadband Plan,” he said.

“For this year, we will focus on development and improving the Internet content in order to attract more people to migrate to broadband,” Lai said in his speech to recognise loyal TMNet Streamyx subscribers in Kelantan Monday night.

“We will also continue to improve our services to ensure that subscribers remained loyal to TMNet,” he added.

– BERNAMA�
�
Read the full article at Bernama� (but note that whatever is above is the full article…)

TM Net Sdn Bhd is on track to achieve its target of having one fifth of Malaysian households logged on to the broadband network by next year, having achieved the half million customer mark recently.

TM Net chief executive officer Michael Lai said the targets would translate in 20.1% of households or 4.5% of the population using broadband by 2007.

Read the full article at The Edge Daily