So, according to those slides TM Net produced during its recent PR exercise, the company's definition of a heavy user is someone who downloads 25GB a month. This is laughable for all sorts of reasons.

If you were to use a 1Mbps Streamyx connection at full speed (let's say 100KB per second) for 24 hours a day for 30 days a month, you'd be able to download 247GB a month. TM Net doesn't want you to do this. TM Net expects you to use your 1Mbps broadband connection at 10KB/s on average every month. In other words, if you use more than 10% of your 1Mbps connection's total capacity a month, TM has now decided you're a heavy user.

(For 4Mbps Streamyx users, 25GB per month translates to 2.5% of total bandwidth capacity.)

To make this all the more insulting, TM Net's official page for its Streamyx site boasts "unlimited usage for a fixed rate". This is false advertising, of course, and it's by a communications company which is absolutely terrible at communications. There's no English dictionary in the world that defines "unlimited" as "having undisclosed limits." Prospective Streamyx subscribers would be less than impressed by the ugly truth: "Restricted to 25GB per month with an average speed of 10KB/s".

The second reason why TM Net's definition of heavy user is laughably absurd is the company has another broadband service, UniFi, and TM Net is allowing those users download 120GB per month (and as the UniFi official site notes there is no cap for the time being). Keep in mind that both UniFi and Streamyx users are using the same international bandwidth.

Don't be misled by TM Net's clumsy and transparent attempts to shift the blame from itself. Heavy users of Streamyx are not stealing bandwidth from other Streamyx users; the heavy users are simply making full use of their connections they paid for.

What's actually happening is TM Net is severely restricting Streamyx heavy users in order to maximise international bandwidth for UniFi users. In other words, TM Net is taking away international bandwidth from Streamyx users to cater to UniFi users. TM Net is doing this very quietly so the only ones who are noticing it now are the Streamyx heavy users.

Some of you may not consider TM Net's policies troubling because it doesn't currently affect you. Consider this: TM Net gets to decide who is a heavy downloader and under what circumstances. Download 120GB with a UniFi connection? TM Net says, "No problem." Download 25GB on a Streamyx connection and TM Net says you're a heavy user whose connection must be throttled so severely you won't be able to download critical data including OS service packs, security patches, application upgrades or anti-virus definition updates.

More to the point, TM Net also gets to decide what amount constitutes an excessively high download amount. Today, it's 25GB a month. In a year, TM Net could decide it's 20GB or perhaps 15GB. This is called moving the goalposts and to mix sporting metaphors, this is not cricket. TM Net, having gone from "unlimited" to 25GB, will most assuredly change this amount once again.

The real problem here is TM Net is set on maximising profits and as such is eager to increase its broadband subscription base without making the necessary infrastructure investments to maintain a high quality of service. Increasing the number of subscribers means increasing revenue but increasing international bandwidth capacity to maintain quality of service means increasing expenditure which eats up profits.

It's worth noting TM Net announced RM2 billion in revenues and more than doubled its net profits for the third quarter of 2010 alone. Now ask yourself how TM Net is going to meet shareholder expectations of improved profits in the future.

Does anyone believe the company is going to spend any of the RM800 million it made in profits for its first three financial quarters of 2010 to improve the international bandwidth capacity for Streamyx users?

Does anyone believe TM Net is going to stop accepting broadband subscribers because it has more subscribers than it can provide international bandwidth for?

The Streamyx/UniFi situation is a clear indicator of TM Net's future strategy: the company is going to continue oversubscribing (i.e. having more users than it can adequately support) and punish existing customers who do not upgrade by severely throttling them when the company rolls out a new broadband service.

TM Net has made overtures to local bloggers in order to co-opt them and induce them to spread TM Net's PR message. Streamyx users who feel they have been unfairly throttled should respond by lodging a complaint with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. Visit aduan.skmm.gov.my.

If this doesn't help matters then it's clear TM Net needs a very public rebuke from long-suffering Streamyx users who have thus far restricted their complaints to enthusiast web sites like this one. In an age of Twitter and Facebook groups, Streamyx users who dutifully pay their monthly bill only to be treated to secret throttling, frequent service degradation and outages have plenty of avenues to give TM Net a much-deserved and overdue PR black eye on the international stage.