Malaysia broadband penetration exceeds target

According to a news report, Malaysia has achieved 21.1% household broadband penetration. This exceeds its projection of 20% penetration under Malaysia’s National Broadband Implementation Plan.

Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communications Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum also added that it targets to achieve 50% household penetration in 2010. This means we have about a year to cover additional 30% of our nation’s household with broadband. We see this as a challenging target to achieve.

However it is still possible as there are new wireless broadband providers that have emerged recently utilising 3G HSDPA and WiMAX technology. Currently, the 3G players are Maxis, Celcom, U Mobile and new comer DiGi. On the WiMAX end, we have Packet 1, Redtone, YTL and Asiaspace. Not forgetting also are other wireless providers such as Izzi as well. Wireless is generally much faster to roll out due to lack of physical cabling to each potential user.

However we have questions on these new players roll out. Are they able to fulfill the extra 30% household within 1 year through proper coverage planning and capacity management?

Also what defines broadband? Is there a proper minimum definition of broadband by 2010? It would be pointless if broadband subscribers are achieved but average speed obtained is below broadband levels.

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Official Malaysia WiMAX Roll out next week!

WiMAX is officially available in Malaysia next week! We will be witnessing not just one, but TWO WiMAX operators rolling out their services in the country.

Packet 1 will be having their official launch on next Tuesday August 19th in Kuala Lumpur while another operator REDtone will be launching theirs on the next day August 20th in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Both operators will be launching at different ends in the country and its obvious that the two won’t be competiting heads-on in the same market segments for now. We are unsure on the reason behind such roll out strategy but both would have different challenges to face.

What to expect?

P1 W1MAX by Packet 1 has been showcased to the public several times namely at WCIT and the recent PC Fair. We are aware that they have a working LAN based WiMAX modem and initial feedbacks we seen have been encouraging.

Before this, Packet 1 has been actively promoting its trial programme and recently it has also mentioned that Packet 1 managed to sign up its first subscribers. This not only incidates that Packet 1′s W1MAX is ready for service but it also marks as Malaysia’s 1st ever WiMAX subscription in the country.  At present time, we are still unsure of their current coverage areas and we hope to find out soon during the launch.

It is rumoured that P1 W1MAX would be available at 4 packages with competiting speed offerings with different price ranges. Their biggest competitor would be Streamyx at the moment and judging on evaluations we’ve seen, the performance of P1 W1MAX is something existing Streamyx users would look forward to.

As for REDtone, they have not given any clues on their WiMAX devices or offerings. There was nothing tangible to date and we are interested to see what sort of devices and packages available for subscription during launch in Sabah.

After much hype in the press, 2 operators have finally came out to launch officially in the market. The other 2 WiMAX operators, YTL and AsiaSpace have yet to make announcement on their commercial services to date.

Watch this space for more updates!

Related Links
REDtone to roll out WiMAX by month end
P1 W1MAX
LiewCF’s WiMAX Experience at PC Fair