The State of Broadband
Taman Klang Jaya, formerly known as Taman Goodwood, currently gives me great woes, when it comes to getting an Internet connection. In short, there is no choice, but the monopoly that is Telekom Malaysia, and their substandard DSL service, better known as Streamyx.
Streamyx, as we all know, pretty much sucks. Heck, even Members of Parliament know this.
Hence, I have a Maxis Broadband modem. And guess what? Their 3G services not only suck in Taman Klang Jaya, they suck pretty much everywhere. On Twitter, people are suggesting to go back to just use the 2G network, and things work out fine. If the telco had any maruah, they’d do what DiGi did for their prepaid users: service outage = half price calls.
So I thought I’d try P1’s W1MAX. They seem to be selling in Klang, and I have a little Wiggy device. Still, no coverage in the area.
I’ve recently become a DiGi Broadband subscriber, and while it works fine (1mbps in my PJ home), it drops back to EDGE in Taman Klang Jaya. And as we all know, EDGE isn’t that fast.
So, what is a resident of Taman Klang Jaya to do? (Certainly, its not to subscribe to Streamyx, P1, Maxis and DiGi!) Rather than complain here on my blog, is it possible that I contact my local Member of Parliament? How do I even find out who my MP is? (Wow, that kid at BarCampKL that @tekong and I encountered, would be jumping all over this statement, right about now).
The state of broadband is such that even if I were to launch any high-bandwidth requirement businesses, I would fail. And I’m sure somewhere, in the MSC Bill of Guarantees, there is a provision that says the infrastructure itself must be world class. Streamyx today, is probably even worse than many third world countries I’ve visited.
“The state of broadband is such that even if I were to launch any high-bandwidth requirement businesses”….hey, guess what i do for a living??!!
I have a sneaky suspicion that things will improve a lot when HSBB rolls out. Nothing to do with the 10mbps infra of cos, but because TM will spend on opening up international access to support their HSBB, and make it seem like HSBB is ‘the answer’ and ‘worth the extra’. Yes, you will pay more, because the existing streamyx pricing model won’t sustain the cost of higher intnl access.
Effectively, by retaining Streamyx where it is (sucky), by manipulating Intnl access, it helps them move heavy users to the new HSBB platform.
The telcos omg, only want you to use their 3g services as a lite mobile offering, not as a primary home service..as if anyone wants to have 2 subscriptions! i guess their motivation is margin. The terrible streaming speeds, embarrassing FUP caps, everything..are driven by the need to retain the huge margins they’ve enjoyed from the voice-centric days. ok ok perhpas i’m being a little unfair. Provisioning a 3g network for heavy internet usage is damn tough. But then they shouldn’t create expectation of full broadband experience, should they!
To inspire envy, my Virgin (carrier Optus) USB stick gives me 5GB of quota per month for AUD$34, then clamps to 128kb instead of stinging for over-quota. It allows me to sit on a coach, Skyping my GF on the other side of the planet via her cable-ish broadband, for free, or via her Verizon cell ‘phone for 2c a minute (skyping my own mobile ‘phone, just here, costs me over 8x as much).
Prime Minister Rudd wants to spend AUD$43 billion on Internet infrastructure. One of the eChalk list members calculated that at AUD$5000 per household. For this amount, you can get a eeeBox, with screen, & Internet service for fisteen years. At retail prices. Do you think he’ll do it that way, or will the Peter Principle strike?
If you divided the market four ways, went to the Aus ISPs, explained that you were about to give each one over 2 million new, guaranteed customers, then asked who was interested in developing the infrastructure to support this, you’d be killed in the rush. (-: