Time dotCom has launched Netlynx, a collaboration with Palette Multimedia Berhad.

The service will be made available in Damansara Perdana from 3 September 2007 onwards. Managing Director Dato’ Baharum Salleh says that Netlynx will be expanded to other parts of Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Bahru within the next six months.

Currently four packages are offered:

1. Netlynx 2Mbps/512Kbps(Dynamic IP)- RM79 (RM119 with Voice)
2. Netlynx 4Mbps/512Kbps(Dynamic IP)- RM179 (RM219 with Voice)
3. Netlynx 6Mbps/512Kbps(Fixed IP)- RM269 (RM319 with Voice)
4. Netlynx 10Mbps/512Kbps(Fixed IP)- RM469 (RM519 with Voice)

Note:

• All voice service is optional
• Promotion price will end 31 December 2007
• All packages comes with 100MB email account
• Voice packages comes with a single line phone
• One time service activation fee: RM75
• One time service installation fee: RM88
• 12 Months contract

I have tested out the 10Mbps during the launch in Damansara Perdana yesterday. While local sites loads up very fast, it was very slow on YouTube. I believe YouTube or the international link was having problem during the test. According to DU Meter, I was allocated a bandwidth of 37Mbps, but the technical team during the live demo claims that it was using the 10Mbps package.

Netlynx is a Metro-e network, IP based, connected to mBone at 30Gbps. The collaboration with Palette will allow Netlynx to offer services like VoIP(Voice over Internet Protocol), VOBB (Voice over Broadband), IPTV and so on.

According to Time dotCom, Netlynx will offer speed up to 100Mbps for business users within the next few months.

Read: “Time just launched Netlynx” -Lowyat.net

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.

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

While Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik does make frequent comments on the poor state of broadband in the country, what makes this article interesting is the level of detail it goes into, naming the companies that have been awarded the last mile licenses (since 2003), and the clear threat mentioned that if they don’t do something with the license, it will be taken away. We’ll try to get the full list of the companies that were awarded the licenses to post up on RedesignMalaysia.com shortly, and perhaps a progress chart as well.

The article also seems to hint that in future, consumers would pay for broadband based on the provision of the service : meaning, if you get bad service/slow speed…you pay less. This would be a welcome change to the current system of monthly contracts with very difficult to process service downtime rebates. Read more below:

New Straits Times - Keng Yaik to lead battle against poor broadband service

Read the full article at The New Straits Times Online

“There are three ways that the industry measures success. One is total capacity; how long your network stretches. Another way is how much fibre-optics you can squeeze through the piping. Lastly, it’s the number of fibres ‘lighted’, ie actually being used.”

Read the full article at The Edge Daily.

TdC would target its wireless broadband service at consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises, he said. Currently, it mainly offers broadband service to large corporations using its fibre optic network.

Read the full article at The Edge Daily

Over the unlimited fibre-optic cable or DSL (literally turbo-charging coaxial or copper wire) connection would set you back by S$14 to S$21 a month, depending on the sort of package you buy.

Read the full article at The Edge Daily