Source :
http://www.jaring.my/service/ceo/index.cfmDelving Into Broadband Culture
Jaring Communications CEO Dr Mohamed B. Awang Lah shares
his views on bridging the digital divide
OBVIOUSLY the country needs high-speed broadband - not only for statistical reason, but for truly up-lifting the quality of life for the citizens of the country in view of wide digital gaps among various segments of our society. The need for broadband is universal in today's cyber age.
The Internet was initially invented for communications and collaboration among researchers to make research and development (R&D) more efficient and effective.
Today, Internet is the core technology that enables the convergence of data (like the Web), voice (like the phone) and video (like TV) services - the so-called triple-play services. Internet is not just a technology that drives the digital economy but also a culture.
However, the full culture of interactive and collaborative teaching and learning is still not possible in our schools today as the Internet bandwidth is inadequate for such purpose. The root cause of the problem is the lack of availability, unsatisfactory quality and high cost of broadband.
The Communications and Multimedia Act was created in 1998 (CMA '98) to create a more conducive environment for the telecommunication industry to grow. The industry was liberalised by making it easier for new service providers to get the necessary licences to operate their services.
Over the last decade, we have seen mobile telephone services grown by leaps and bounds with three almost equally strong players. The consumers are enjoying many different competitive packages offered by the service providers. But alas, it did not happen for broadband. Why? In my view, the reason is simply because we failed to swiftly act based on the spirit of CMA'98.
There are four basic components of a typical fixed-line broadband service.First, the telephone line that link our house to the nearest exchange point. Since most telephone lines are owned by a single operator, the regulator has initiated the unbundling of the telephone lines by allowing bit-stream access to allow other last-mile operators to lease the lines to offer their own broadband.
The leasing mechanism and price negotiation was, however, not clear. Many parts of the access arrangement are left to commercial negotiation between cable owner and the interested parties.
This is one of the basic flaws. We cannot expect newcomers and small players to negotiate fairly with a big giant on something that the giant wants to protect. Furthermore, the giant does not need the small players to exist.
Second is the backbone network to link up the exchange points (which are located in various parts of the country) to the information source - most of which are in overseas. More than 85% of the backbone fibres are owned by a single operator.
Even then, while there are a lot of fibres in certain urban areas, many places still do not have any fibre network. Commissioning a new backbone link may take a long time. The uneven availability of high-speed backbone links, not to mention the high price tag, makes it difficult for small providers to rollout competitive services in many part of the country.
Third is the link between the backbone and the landing point for submarine cables which link Malaysia to rest of the world. All landing points today are owned by one operator and usually carry high price tag.
Fourth is the submarine cable which links Malaysia with the rest of the world. There are only a few submarine cables that land on Malaysia's shores compared to many more in our neighbouring country. Our choice for international connectivity is therefore quite limited and not competitive.
In summary, the real issue is about the almost monopolistic environment that we have not managed to address over the past decade or two. With a project such as high-speed broadband (HSBB), it is an opportune time to address this issue.
The broadband penetration in Malaysia at the end of 2007 was about 13% of households while many countries have reached 70% to 80%. On average, less than four in 100 inhabitants were broadband subscribers compared to 32 in the Netherlands and 19 In Australia. It means a significant market is still untapped. We need more last-mile players to speed up the rollout of broadband services. However, they need to be fairly enabled at the backbone and international levels.
The era of monopoly for telecommunication services has long gone. We need to do something different if we want to be competitive. While the cost of broadband (on best effort basis) in many countries has reached below RM6 per Mbps per month, ours is still more than 10 times higher. In Japan it is only about RM2 per Mbps per month.
While many countries are already offering 10 Mbps or higher broadband speed, we are still struggling at 1 Mbps.
We need to review our backbone infrastructure to create reasonable competition for last-mile providers to offer competitive service to end-users. I would certainly agree that we do not want to create too much duplication of infrastructure in order to conserve national resource. However, reasonable competition is necessary to provide checks and balances for better efficiency as well as to encourage creativity and innovation in nation building. Otherwise there is no simple way to determine and compare costs.
The backbone infrastructure should be operated by an entity such as a special purpose vehicle which can offer its services on wholesale basis only - to serve ail licensed service providers, big and small, who provide retail services. Service level commitment is a must and should be transparent.
We should achieve a "coopetitive" environment where last-mile operators cooperate to share backbone infrastructure (for long distance high speed connectivity) while at the same time compete in the provision of last-mile infrastructure to serve the end-users. To be effective, an open and transparent pricing plan should be practiced by the backbone operator.
I do not believe that my idea is new and I am sure there are many others who have similar thoughts. The challenge is for us to make the necessary changes in bridging the digital divide by making broadband a basic utility service. There must be strong will from the authorities and equally strong support from the service providers. The potential market is big enough for all providers to grow and share for the benefit of the end-users and the country.
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I am using Tunnel to Jaring network now, from my browsing experience with Jaring, I feel Jaring is much much more better than Streamyx.
At least, I can steaming in youtube without buffering.
To : Yangxi ( The Thread starter)
From above article, it stated
"We cannot expect newcomers and small players to negotiate fairly with a big giant on something that the giant wants to protect. Furthermore, the giant does not need the small players to exist." this could be the reason why Jaring is still lacking behind until today, Jaring do not able to provide the Boardband service nationwide.
This post has been edited by Suk: Aug 25 2008, 06:30 AM 
Oct 23 2005, 10:40 AM, updated 17y ago
takut rugi ? 
Quote
rite now i stick to my company broadband TM Streamyx 
Lots of noise in my line.
oh well, puasa period.. can't expect much.
. complained to senior staffs of TMnet and Telekom.... i think they malu coz.. my home is near the batu berendam FTZ 2 and 1.5km from their office. they oredy put dslam near my home. now ony got access....
my life is download & online gaming
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