English Premier League from Maxis?

Recently, TM and Maxis concluded a 10-year agreement for TM to provide High Speed Broadband (HSBB) Access Services to Maxis. According to RHB research, Maxis with the agreement, can instantly roll out fixed home services to a potential pool of higher ARPU customers with last mile access via TM’s HSBB network to 700k premises, and up to 1.3m premises by end-2012.

Currently, Maxis’ fixed home services is limited to Bandar Utama, Sierramas, Bangsar and Sri Hartamas via its own fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network. And, as Finance Malaysia know, Maxis is targeting to launch its service in the newly popular township of Puchong.

Maxis's secret weapon - Content
All in one, Maxis plans to roll out are IPTV, VoIP, video-on-demand (VoD) and high speed Internet. In fact, TM itself already offers some form of IPTV and VoD bundled in together with its core service of high speed Internet in its UniFi packages. Hence, content is indeed a very important element for Maxis to stand out. It is very likely that Maxis will leverage off its sister company, Astro especially for the Astro's exclusive rights of English Premier League.

A Win-Win situation 

For Maxis, it can save on its capex by riding on TM's HSBB network, without the need to build its own fibre network which could cost billions of ringgit. For TM, it could benefits from more wholesale revenue arising from a higher utilisation rate of its HSBB network.

Broad-Ban in Malaysia?

Forget about the old fixed line internet connections anymore. We have the on-the-go broadband services, which provide almost unlimited boundaries for internet lover to surf anytime anywhere. However, you may not know a very unpleasant scenario is happening in Malaysia (at least I found out now).

Although I comment about TM's monopoly status in fixed line internet connection previously, I still prefer Streamyx for its unlimited surfing, lower monthly charges, and stable connectivity. Most importantly, more than one people can online at the same time, without extra fees. Whereas, broadband cannot.

Don't know #1

Recently, I moved to a new area, and hopes to subscribe for Streamyx (fixed line internet service provided by TM). However, I was shock to found out that I cannot subscribe for Streamyx, because my area was under Maxis territory. Wow… Sounds like I am living in the battle-field, where Maxis won the game!!!


The reason given was that my area's telephone line is bought over by Maxis, and Streamyx needs the telephone line to connect. Since this was the only fixed line internet service you can find in Malaysia, and again thanks to TM's monopoly status, I have no choice, but to look for broadband service.


Don't know #2

Then, I subscribe for a broadband service, but, the connection is slow (running at below 100kbps during peak hours). Can you imagine how slow 100kbps is? It's like opening a single website until you felt asleep. So, I went to another service provider to en-quire  theirs. Thanks for his honesty, he told me that if you are staying near the mountain, and in an apartment unit above 5 storey, you can't expect to get a good connection.


Conclusions… Broad-Ban

Are we living in a business friendly society, in the expense of public's freedom of choice? 
First, Maxis is wrong by conquering certain areas, which undermine the choice of citizen there. 
Second, why TM agreed to let go some of its assets?


Finance Malaysia thinks that Rakyat should be given to freedom to choose for their preferred service. Business owners should cares about the difficulties faced by Rakyat. And, government should monitor the latest development which could affect the welfare of Rakyat. Internet services are very important our daily lives now. Oh my dear Malaysians.


*The telecommunication company is expanding its territory now. Would your area be the next battle-field?

Sick of TM's monopoly status...

In frustration and disappointment, I wrote this post about the connectivity problem of our beloved Malaysia. I am writing this at a cafe, where I have to bare all the petrol and beverages costs in order to arrived. Without further ado, I opened my laptop while waiting for my hot white coffee, to express what's the feeling inside me.

Deep down in me, I want to channel a very clear message to TM and Government that Rakyat like us are very very very frustrated with the Internet service provided by TM. I am bringing up the feeling of Malaysians as a whole that Streamyx is nowhere to transform our nation to high-income nation.

Please do not blame me first. Let me explain my point of view as below:

Dear TM:

- The Internet connection at my area (at least) was always down, even though I had highlighted to them a few times. Please note that I am just "highlighting" to TM. But, these seems not working without "complaining".

Dear Government:

- First we have to ask ourselves why such things happened?

- In fact, this is happening for so many years, although TM did make some improvements.

- It's very clear that the monopoly status conquer by TM on fixed dial-up Internet services (Streamyx) is suck.

- Why not open up the business? Just like the competitive broadband business?

Please do something fast, this is a very urgent issue hampering the efforts being made to attract foreigners to work here, transforming Greater KL, transforming Malaysia as a high-income nation...