Maybe you can suggest to the CEO to cane super heavy downloaders....

Looks like TM is trying to dig itself out of the "unlimited" hole they have created for themselves. Slowly but surely they are directly and indirectly brainwashing a group of users and the rest of the users to accept what they need to do to save themselves.

Last month they did the capping. It was based on CR. They know that the users know now what happens using CR. Everybody went slow and had problems. So now the CR option may not look good at all to users due to the past experience. So users may try the next best thing, the VB. I think that is what they are pushing for and nudging everyone towards. And at the same time get all users to forget "unlimited" and accept changes to the FUP etc.

To MX510, Tentris and others who have access. Tell the CEO to go find the bandwidth hoggers and figure out a way to deal with that group first. Leave everyone else alone for now. Then come back with new stats. Then see if further actions are needed. The current FUP already caters for this. I have mentioned it before.

If cars travelling at 150km/h on the highway are causing accidents, go set the speed traps and deal with those drivers. Don't be silly enough to slow down all traffic along the highway to 50km/h and cause problems for everybody.

There needs to be clarification of how TM considers 25GB as a Streamyx heavy user. On Unifi side, the majority is up to 100GB, so lets say average of 50GB. The rest are higher up to 900GB. So it means ALL Unifi users are heavy users according to a 25GB Streamyx heavy user definition?

I think that TM is making it a point to focus on the 25Gb figure as maybe they already have a plan to limit packages at eg 10 / 20 / 30GB or something.

It seems to happen here with many things. Say something ridiculous first. Then replace with something less ridiculous so that it is more acceptable. Point is forgotten that either way it is ridiculous anyway.

IMO, they are fairly well covered about the "unlimited" part. That is why they are now trying to move away from the "unlimited" hole they have created for the future.

IMO. I don't think there is any real major problem for Streamyx at this time. After the CR / capping was lifted a couple of weeks ago, things have got back sort-of to normal. Its not like the network has crashed or anything.

This leads me to think that they are wanting to do some restrictions so that they can conserve bandwidth, most likely so they can continue to sign on more new Streamyx users without having to spend on increasing bandwidth capacity for the next year or so.

After all, if there are 1% users using 20% of international bandwidth, stopping that will allow for an additional 25% new "normal" users to come in and use the freed-up 20% bandwidth. Thats like being able to take in some 300-400k new users. That's something like RM25-30million extra a month.

Maybe there is some new Streamyx promotions coming up early next year to signup new users and this is preparation for that.

This post has been edited by mylinear: Dec 18 2010, 05:41 PM

Tentris, its not always about conspiracy theory. Sure we cannot prove anything as we don't have facts. But this is more of strategic business move or whatever you want to call it.

I didn't do exact calculations. But really, saving 20% bandwidth will allow space for so-called average 11GB users close to an extra 400,000 users. Imagine the amount of revenue you get with one fell swoop. No need to purchase extra international bandwidth to satisfy your existing users, and on top you have extra bandwidth ready for new users. Do the exact math if you want.

Another example. Find or kick out that single 1TB user (assuming 24/7/365 downloading) and replace with about 90 average 11GB users. Lets see, lose RM140 a month (4Mb user) vs gain RM7,200 a month (all 1Mb users). Just examples.

As I said, if 25GB is a heavy user, then ALL Unifi users are potentially heavy users as they are allowed 60GB minimum as advertised. This 25GB is not correct. Figures can be made to look any way you want to most of the time.

You see, this is the sort of clarification and info we need before even considering anything. I do not think it works that way. There will be a base package price and then you pay extra for per GB.

So maybe a 1Mb package will be say RM80 for 10GB and then you pay extra if you use more. I do not think TM is going to give you a strictly PAYU, ie a user who uses 2GB a month only pays RM4? No way.

TM will also not be able to handle this as then their monthly revenue stream will be unpredictable.

They cannot even get simple things wright. You ask them to do a bit more complicated things, we will all not have internet access soon if they mess up...

They got a problem with their bandwidth? They got bandwidth hoggers (as they call it)? Go deal with that. Maybe its just a handful of users in the end. Why trouble everyone else? Why complicate things? Their current FUP allows for this. What more do they want? Unless that's not the real reason and they have some other hidden agenda behind all this?

Come on TM, there must be some people in the company who are capable of coming up with a solution. Look for a solution that makes sense even if it is a little hard work for now. Not just find a simple solution that affects everyone like the previous capping fiasco. Get some external help / consultant if you cannot figure out how to solve your problems.

TM says above 25GB is a heavy user. We have seen posts here about users downloading 100 or 300 or 500 etc GB. Even TM says there are 1TB users. So the gap between 25GB and such larger figures are very very wide.

TM needs to break down their so-called heavy user into something like:

1. 25-100GB
2. 100-300GB
3. 300-600GB
4. 600-900GB
5. 900GB and over

Something like that. Let's see those stats. That's what they did for Unifi. Many ranges there. Why only 3 categories for Streamyx? This shows a bias towards wanting 25GB to play on users minds.

That's the thing. Each user will have a different figure which is considered normal depending on his own usage pattern. Your figure is much more than a heavy user according to TM 25GB figure.

Remember best effort...

I wonder if TM has stats on how many users actually hit the 1TB mark...

Then why does TM say 25GB is already a heavy user? The wireless packages were like that from the start so I guess users make do with them. Maybe they need the wireless facility for other reasons or don't have a fixed phone line etc. I also don't think those other ISPs have as much international bandwidth capacity as TM does.

TM does not even need to monitor any threads. They have the capability to check each user's account and customize it if they want to do so. For example, They can do capping at a user account level if they want to. I guess this may come next if they cannot control overall users and have to target specific or a group of users.

If they save bandwidth by doing this, they will use it some how. I doubt they will distribute it among existing Streamyx users as upgrades. It will either be used for Unifi users or for new Streamyx users. The bandwidth is gone if you don't use it. You pay millions a year for iternational bandwidth and you cannot just leave it unused, you have to maximize the usage or it is wasted.

They will make more money with it. And keep getting money from existing users. They do not have to worry much about upgrading after that as if there are new packages with VB, they will be able to manage the number of users. Like I said, getting another 300-400K users may take say 2-3 years more? So no real need to upgrade international bandwidth costing millions every year for that amount of time at least.

What Maxis did in that case is correct. I believe when existing users who changed to Super Upgrade or BlockBuster or whatever will be subjected to a new 1 - 2 year contract. At that point, the user is also subjected to and agreeing to the the new TOS, FUP etc at that time.

Only Streamyx users who signed up many years ago when the FUP did not exists may have a case if they are affected by the FUP. But I think that is very few. For example, last time when a lot of 1Mb users found connections slow, they moved to 4Mb and thus are bound by the new TOS and FUP. Or those 512Kb users who upgrade to 1Mb etc.

Back in mid 2007, they had 75Gbps? And was going to add another 60Gbps with the AAG?

What happened to all the bandwidth from the AAG supposed to have been functioning since last year?

In the presentation slide, they say they have quadrupled capacity in the last few years. Assuming last few years means in the last 3-4 years, then there should be a figure something like 300Gbps.

Say now 1.5m users. Average RM80. That's RM120m per month.

If base price is like RM30, and say 70% users use less than 15GB, that's only RM30m. You cannot make up the remainder RM90m unless the other 30% pays RM200 per month.

TM has got a steady RM120m every month now. Why would they want to reduce that?

Also, I believe the CEO has said that they won't reduce Streamyx package prices. Only add value to it. The value they are going to add is either CR, VB or LB...


This post has been edited by mylinear: Dec 18 2010, 10:27 PM

Well, if TM implements some different method, then I guess users may (and should) look at all other alternatives to see if there is something else to suit their usage and maybe at a cheaper cost.

Bandwidth conservation so they can save or use it elsewhere to earn more.

Fairer pricing was not brought up. Users have already said some pay RM160 while others pay RM140 for 4Mb. Some pay RM99 while others pay RM88 or RM71 for 1Mb etc. What have they done to fix that? Need a survey too?

Hoggers? Their current FUP lets them take care of whomever they want. Haven't they read their own FUP?

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Added on December 18, 2010, 10:50 pmI think MX510 was referring to wireless for use with emails, surfing and facebook etc, which usage may be low like less than 3GB.


This post has been edited by mylinear: Dec 18 2010, 10:50 PM