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Friday, May 16, 2008

Broadband in Malaysia is crap!


For years TM has been fooling us by providing us with crap quality Internet access through their “pride and joy”: Streamyx. If you’re not in the IT line, most probably you won’t know that the 1Mbps (1Mbps = 1000Kbps) bandwidth that TM was supposedly providing us only reaches about 300Kbps maximum (only if you’re lucky), that’s a fraction of what you’re suppose to get (1Mbps). If you call TM to ask them about this, they will say: “Best effort only. 1Mb is not guaranteed.” Check the contract that you signed with them when you bought your package, the fine print says “Best effort only”. Do you know that the bandwidth is crap mainly because:

  • Replace copper wires! We use the public telephone infrastructure (PSTN) which runs on over-head copper wires. These copper wires are prone to outside interference (noise and high temperature) and this affects the transmission of data through these wires. It’s ok for telephone conversation traffic but bad for Internet bandwidth. They need to be replaced with fiber optic cables.

  • Not enough switch ports! I had a bad experience with TM once, they pulled out my port just to fit someone else’s port because there were not enough ports. The best thing was that the switch box was right outside my apartment room, so I went outside to shout at the TM technicians. They apologized and said that they had to do that because there were not enough ports in the area for new subscribers. I was not the only one that experienced this in my area, a few of my friends get the same problem regularly and since they don’t see the technicians on the spot, they have to call and request customer service to arrange for a technician to come by to fix the problem. TM generates millions in profit but they don’t even want to buy network equipment (routers and switches).

  • Poor maintenance! If you conduct proper maintenance of the local network infrastructure, there should not be any problems with it. Their technicians should be qualified personnel that know how to handle switches and router and must be good at troubleshooting problems on the spot. I’ve met many TM technicians and most of them don’t know what they are doing, they just refer to manuals or call their helpdesk when they encounter problems. They don’t have network knowledge!

  • No QC standards! We need quality control. When TM says 1Mbps, they must deliver 1Mbps, not “Best Effort”. The government should take control of the situation and impose a penalty on TM if they don’t achieve the required standard. What is the consumer affairs board doing about this? Why are they keeping quiet?
Today TM told the press that they are planning a RM15.6 billion ringgit bid to improve the country’s broadband penetration rate and infrastructure “to ensure that the country will have a top-notch, competitive high-speed broadband infrastructure in the next decade” (source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/16/nation/21272341&sec=nation).

I believe that its crap, why do they have to implement it within a decade? Why not 4 to 5 years? I believe it is possible if they put some effort into it.

Broadband speed in South Korea is now 1,000 Mbps (that’s more than a 1000 times our current bandwidth here) and it is the same for Hong Kong, with Singapore expected to reach that target by 2015. If Singapore can do it, why can’t we? We have more resources than them but yet we can’t even compete with them? That’s because Singapore cares about their standards. They impose high standards and never lower them no matter what. We should learn from them, especially TM!

1 comment:

kok leong said...

i agree with ur post.
broadband in M'sia is totally crap n bullshit.
rm15.6 billions for boosting up our line... in DECADEs!?
i guess a few billions will enter into their pocket instead of fixing up a good connection..
sigh, now i also having problem to open my blogspot page..
tmnet is nothing but bullshit!
we need another ISP!