Jalur Sempit IPTA Malaysia

More than three years ago in 2005, I raised my concern to the then Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dato' Seri Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis during the Global Technopreneurship Forum event in Penang on how intolerable the state of Internet connection in Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Status higher learning institutions including Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Consider that when universities in the United States were enjoying 10-MBps or better connection to dorm (hostel) rooms as early as ten years earlier, Malaysian universities in 2005 were having 100Kbps or slower connection to hi-tech labs. In fact, my 50Kbps mobile GPRS connection was at times better than connection to these RM-million equipped computer labs. At the same time, home users were able to subscribe to 1-Mbps (best effort) from providers like TM Net Sdn Bhd.

I was responding on how he should not focus too much of his effort on (less practical) WiMaX roll-out to jungles and villages and might get distracted off the more urgent task (RESPONSIBILITY) at hand, i.e. empower some 600,000 higher learning students with what they critically need, usable BROADBAND! Yang Berhormat's immediate reaction (and very bold if I may add) was that I should not question the rights of Malaysian natives (Orang Asli etc.), but instead should tolerate the fact that those university students (me included, since I was completing my postgraduate program at a local university) can at least have some taste of Internet no matter how horrible it was.

Fast forward 3+ years later, Malaysian broadband scenes still look hopeless, and WiMaX is practically nowhere to be found the country, except only recently starting from mostly Klang Valley (as usual, where many providers don't go further away, like Jaring's Broadband, TIME's Webbit etc.). Instead, people have come to realize that it's WiFi that most people need, including through recent better-late-than-never initiative (political campaign?) by the Penang State Government (although the actual implementation is still very much questionable - where is it??). Considering that Maxis & Celcom are among world's most ridiculous broadband providers offering hi-speed download of total data at just 3GB and 5GB per month respectively (enough for just ONE full day of active use, or just SEVEN days of 8-hour/day web surfing), compared to upcoming DiGi's & P1's at 50GB and more, most people would still have to rely to WiFis at Mamak outlets (private or government-supported via KTAK) at the cost of RM1/hour (electricity at most outlets) or less (just 'teh tarik' etc, and get their stomach bloated with sweetened milk and sugar causing 'kencing manis'). For some who don't mind 'behaving' while surfing, they can make use of hi-speed wifi at most KTAK myBroadband-powered libraries.

At the age of Web 3.0 (starting March 2009), when millions in developed countries of US, UK, Japan, Korea, Singapore etc. are enjoying up to 60MBps average broadband, millions of Malaysians especially those 100,000s of university students in campuses around the country are still crawling at speed well of under 1Mbps and frequent disconnections...

If you don't believe me, see the following rant (do disregard association with a Hitler portrayal - just for laughs!), creative production by a Malaysian Multimedia University (MMU) student - if MMU that's located at the epicenter of MSC, Cyberjaya is in trouble, don't dream elsewhere!:




ENGLISH TRANSLATION/SUBTITLES:

Military official (looking distressed): This week, electricity supply has been interrupted twice (especially) at nights. Today, water supply is also experiencing interruption. The number of students who aren't taking morning showers are increasing.

Hitler: That's OK (looking unimpressed). What's important... has the internet problem been resolved?

Military official : Regarding that... (looking fearful). Internet...
Military official 2: Internet connectivity still experiencing troubles, and the speed... worse than usual.

Hitler (angered and disappointed, putting down his eyeglasses): Those who are staying... outside the hostels (off campus), please... leave the room now.... (MOST LEFT THE ROOM EXCEPT THREE SENIOR MILITARY OFFICIALS and two scared bodyguards)

What's all these!! Can't internet issue be resolved already? We've suffering for so long, and with the Internet speed continue to worsen and worsen! I totally did not expect this! (woman sobbing outside the room, being consoled by another woman). Why is Internet problem not resolved to date? (SHOUTING) Today, I was forced to use the Internet service that's obviously slower than my neighbor's turtle!

Military official (at fast pace): Sir, this internet (slowness) issue has been reported to CITS.

Hitler: I've send that (same) report way earlier! In fact, I've sent thousands of emails!!

MO: But (Sir), at least Internet can still be used for surfing.

Hitler: What surfing, if the Internet waves look slower like there's no wind! (THROWN PENCIL TO THE MAP ON DESK). It's disguisting, you know! All these while, I was able to enjoy playing online games, joining outside servers, mass-massacring people in Counter Strike! Look what happens now, ping results are extremely high! Even worse, when I was enjoying my Internet game, it keeps disconnecting! All my dream to become number one was gone... just like that! If I can do anything my heart desire, I'd strangle my roomate, and murder him! All the while, I was so proudful with Internet in MMU (Malaysian Multimedia University, a MSC-status institution/campus), which was different from home Internet... Now, it's like a long sweet dream, crashed! Disguisting! Not just that, I could die trying to download movies via torrent from outside! They keep blocking that download, and it's insanely slow! And don't get me started with Rapidshare... It takes over a dozen days just to download a single part! How can I be patient with such a a thing?

Woman Outside (CONSOLING ANOTHER WOMAN): It's ok. C'mon... we both stay off campus (outside the hostels), right?

Hitler: This is a very critical problem! Looks like I won't be able to play that Team Fortress 2 game that I've just purchased... It's been very unfortunate! Internet... slowness... If this continues, maybe it's time for me to leave the hostel, and reside in Cyberia (a nearby off-campus condominium). It's been an unfortunate day... (LOOKING DOWN)

I wonder what the KTAK ministers and staff are doing nowadays? Why are they not as vocal as former KTAK minister Tun Dr. Lim Kheng Yaik, against these incompetent national telcos?

Well, sometimes, when facing adversities and hardships, people can indeed be creative! Take the Oscar-awarded Slumdog Millionaire film for instance. Plus, I can absolutely, personally attest to this statement!

CELCOM Broadband's Logic: FREE modem when you've already paid...

Frustrated with the slowness of EDGE, I figured it's time to check out 3G from Celcom. After all, the "free modem" advertisement aggressively plastered on newspapers etc. grabbed my attention.

So I drove down to Celcom centre in Bayan Baru and this time there are three counters set up for resellers (instead of only one not too long ago) showing how aggressive they are in marketing Celcom Broadband. I approached one reseller inside the shop (to enjoy the air-conditioned environment) and a salesgirl immediately explaining to me their on-going promotion for Celcom 3G Data Broadband - SALE prices for two types of HSDPA modems ranging from under RM400 to over RM700, and the unlimited data subscription packages starting at RM68/month for download speed up to 384Kbps, and RM98 for download speed up to 3.6Mbps. She explained though that with the latter package, only 1Mbps is guaranteed for Penang -- I was already turned off this time when all along I was expecting to get at least something close to 3Mbps.

I then asked "where's the free modem package?"

She quickly explained, to get the "FREE modem", I'd have to agree to a different set of subscription fees at RM99 and RM129 respectively instead, and get the "free" modem (that's supposed to sell for under RM400 -- retailed by Celcom for RM499 though, which Celcom insisted at a discounted price from the original price of RM799).

She put up a calculator for me: RM31 extra per month times 18 months (contract period or a penalty of RM350 is applicable, and NO 7-DAY REFUND GUARANTEE!) equals RM558, a lot more than the price of the modem!

So, for Celcom, customers need to pay an extra RM588 to get the "FREE modem!" Is it ironic?

Oh well, it's rather the same logic used to market TM Net Streamyx DSL packages, adding RM10/month for 12-24 months to pay for the "free DSL modem" (at a cost of RM120-240 to customer for modems that are available from under RM100 each).

Since I already have Streamyx service at home (still in love-hate relationship after using this DSL service for about five years now), I said thanks to the salesgirl and moved on to another reseller's counter to inquire about Celcom+Streamyx package, but was pointed to take queue for the official Celcom's counters. I figured, I'll just call or check its website first...

Celcom Broadband HSDPA modem: FREE = RM588!

TMNET Streamyx DSL modem: FREE = RM120+

Seeing light on Malaysia's IT Plan...

Despite the many impressing/marketing efforts by various local government and private bodies to show the world that Malaysia is on the verge of fast-paced development on Information & Communication Technology (ICT), up to the conclusion of the 16th World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2008) just recently in Kuala Lumpur [proclaimed by its organizers as the "biggest ever" congregation for the Congress' 30-year history], for many Malaysians to-date, there are still much to be hoped for in terms of actual IT infrastructure, specifically with regards to the broadband speed and coverage throughout the relatively small nation (slightly larger than the state of US New Mexico - CIA, 2008) and general IT culture/adoption among Malaysians. [1 (2005)], [2 (2007)] [3 (2006-2007)]

Heck, while newsprints, local media and many independent bloggers (many of whom are locals as Malaysia is growing to become a 'blogging nation') may have sung praises for WCIT as a major world's event [1] [2] [3], elsewhere in the world, many people may have never heard of the event or the organizing body itself, the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA). Both the official website for WITSA and WCIT 2008 command very small web traffic with global ranking average exceeding 1.5M and 400K respectively [smaller numbers signify better ranking] for the past three months (according to Alexa with a third of the traffic to WITSA website comes from the United States and more than half to WCIT2008 website comes from Malaysia, its host nation) despite the big events held for at least three days and attended by at least 3000 "delegates" and perhaps over 50,000 exposition visitors.


Not so popular the event was, WITSA only gets a rather short article in the Wikipedia and there also lacks any dedicated article on "WCIT" -- A search on Wikipedia for "WCIT" only pulls a result of sixteen articles, many of which are unrelated, and the only related ones are MSC Malaysia (an "Multimedia Super Corridor" initiative by the local government, and marketed as one of the major organizer/sponsor for WCIT 2008) and Hannah Tan, a beautiful and talented personality who however failed to pull a significantly large bid for a set of dates with her during a WCIT Gala Dinner held on the second day of the 3-day event.

Even searching for related media on today's popular sharing sites like YouTube, Yahoo! Flickr and Google PicasaWeb would only return a handful of amateur collections from various individuals instead of major organizations.

Have there not been many facts to be permanently recorded for world's civilized history? Or was it because local journalists or international ones who attended the event are still not to comfortable with public crowdsourcing into world's major Web 2.0 productions?

After all, only Dato' Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairmen of Intel can be considered a major IT leader who made a presence at the event, while the over-hyped appearance by Mr. Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, was only in a not-that-entertaining holographic form -- After all, Intel has a major presence/investment in Malaysia while Microsoft has yet to make a significant base except a decent office at KLCC tower (although there has been an announcement during the WCIT week from Microsoft Malaysia for a sizable investment to establish Microsoft Innovation Centre).

[Another key personality, a popular author and Venture Capitalist Mr. Guy Kawasaki was in Kuala Lumpur too during WCIT week, but he was at a separate event called NetBash, organized by among others, the New Entrepreneur Forum (NEF) and MCA ICT Resource Centre (MIRC), but also attended by key officials from the WCIT2008 organizing body, MDEC.]

In comparison, try googling for events like COMDEX/InterOp, CeBIT, CES 2008, Apple WWDC (June 9-13, 2008 - San Francisco) or Web2Expo (upcoming in New York, Berlin and Tokyo)! While the number of delegates who attended each of these events were smaller, they obviously commanded much bigger coverage in the "new media" platform and respective official websites tend to gain higher visits. After all, these events usually pull in much bigger sponsorships, higher delegation fees and more key personalities from the IT industry. Oh well, we can't compete with the US or Europe, can we? ;)

[Author has attended COMDEX (twice, before the show was discontinued in 2003), Web2Expo (the less exciting Tokyo instead of Berlin or SF) and WCIT and look forward to check out CeBIT, CES and WWDC in the near future now that he writes using a Mac Book Pro instead of a Windows laptop, and tune more to Apple TV/iTunes and MIRO instead of Astro TV, i.e. he's fan of latest digital gadgets and software!]

Still, the fact that our Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi has been so upbeat on WCIT and the outlook for Malaysia's IT future, having joined a big delegation to WCIT 2006 (Austin) and later graced the entire WCIT 2008, despite a minor distraction in his own political party during its second day of running in Malaysia, do give us Malaysian folks some hope. Bravo also to MSC Malaysia crews along with folks from PIKOM etc. Or perhaps, to the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia instead, in conjunction with its Visit Malaysia 2007 campaign that somehow is supposed to run until Merdeka Day 2008, celebrating the country's 50 years of nationhood ;)

Anyway, we've been hearing and seeing some dramatic changes, and more are to come over the next few years in Malaysia:-

1. A day before the weekends when WCIT 2008 delegates were due to arrive, Malaysia's largest and government-linked company, Telekom Malaysia Berhad made a big announcement on Malaysia's Broadband Plan: RM15.2B (about US$5B) for a 10-year two-phases, three-zones infrastructure project to roll-out high-speed broadband (HSBB), powering about 1.3-million premises throughout the country [1][2], with metros like Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang (group under Zone 1) will get HSBB as fast as 1Gbps -- Half (50%) of the nation's six million households will get high-speed Internet in less than three years from now, from 18% or less penetration rate today. Impressive plan! One can argue though: wasn't this 50% penetration target already drafted/promised in the "National Broadband Plan (NBP - pdf)", approved nearly five years ago in 2004? OK... perhaps, we're just on (revised) target...
   
   
2. TM Bhd of course now also enjoys MSC Malaysia status for its headquarters tower building, renaming it from "Menara TM" to "TM CyberCentre Complex" - sounds like a huge hypermarket-size cybercafe ;) The same status was also award to RM2B-worth I-City development project in Shah Alam, which is one to watch, along with other ready MSC-status regional zones like those in Penang, Ipoh (Meru Raya CyberCentre - hmm, is there a dedicated website for this?) and Johor Bharu (Cyberport).
   
   
3. And as WCIT 2008 concluded, TM announced appointment of Jeremy Kung as the new CEO for its highly-watched Internet/Broadband-centric subsidiary, TM Net Sdn Bhd, replacing previous acting CEO, Pn Zainab Hashim -- the top-post of this company seems to follow Chief Minister of Sabah rotational scheme: Datuk Baharum Salleh (2002), Michael Lai (2005, later resigned), Zainab Hashim (acting CEO, late 2006) and now Jeremy Kung (2008). Fresh leadership, fresh spirit I suppose...
   
   
4. Satellite broadband technologies are quite ready. Introducing AIDAAS, one of the stars of WCIT 2008 (which also sponsored the Gala Dinner BTW!)...
   
   
   
   [Author has met the young and ambitious CEO, and based on an email from her, you can find her on Facebook, soon, hopefully...]
   
   The technology won't likely be deployed in Malaysia immediately though, perhaps due to an exclusive license awarded to satellite tv operator, Astro Plc/MEASAT ("ASTRO’s subsidiary, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, enjoys an exclusive licence till 2017 for satellite DTH transmission in Malaysia.", Astro website). But we'll be watching a Malaysian company boldly venturing everywhere else including in the Philippines in the near future.
   
   
5. We're getting help and attention:-

• Nokia Siemens has put up plans for WiMAX
  
• Intel investing in local WiMAX player, Green Packet Bhd (now helmed by Michael Lai, previously from TMNET - parent company of Packet One)
• Long Term Evolution (LTE) will arrive (Ericssons, 2009) - up to 200Mbps for mobile broadband!
• 7.2Mbps HSDPA device has arrived: HTC etc.
  
  
  
  Author however prefers to wait for Apple iPhone to arrive in Malaysia though, by late 2008 (as promised?), and hopefully to come with 3G (as rumored) and camera with higher resolution - is 5MP too much to ask?
  
  

And some Penang folks are enjoying amazing high-speed broadband speed already! Read more here: "Which 'city' is the BROADBAND CAPITAL of Malaysia?"

And more speedtest results here after a major upgrade at a local higher learning institution (post WCIT 2008):

Thanks to an upgrade/switch to OCE (PenangFon), the downstream speed has doubled for this particular Wi-Fi connection, which previously utilizes TM Net Streamyx connectivity.

The wired LAN which serves the greater campus of about 20,000 students and staff also seem to have doubled in speed both downstream and upstream directions. For uploading to a Penang-based server (outside USM) instead of uploading to a US city (some 15,000km away), a speed exceeding 20Mbps was recorded. Words from the school's officials is that they'll soon get a 1Gbps upgrade. Patient, patient, my good college boys and girls! No words however on whether the school will relax its ban on YouTube or other high-bandwidth traffic like via P2P software etc. on the campus network.

Bravo USM!

How big of a difference on 'going fibre' instead of sticking with mainstream DSL service? Consider that a 4 Mbps (maximum for TM Net Streamyx today) would take about 40-minute for Mac users to update their OS X Leopard 10.5.2 to 10.5.3 (released this week). With a 60Mbps downstream connection on the other hand, took less than 2 minute for a CD-size 400+ MB download!

Proud owner of the latest OS on the latest hardware but in 2-minute or 40-minute?

Now consider that you are to download a ~25/50 GB BluRay quality movie or a 4.4GB compressed version (legal version, of course, via iTunes/AppleTV etc) now that this HD format has become mainstream and adopted by practically all major movie studios today (except in countries like Malaysia which will be about five or more years late judging on its past migration from VCD to DVD), how many days/weeks would you have to turn your PC/Mac on, connected to a 4 Mbps or slower DSL line?

And would you be happy to wait for minutes to view those HD-quality movie trailers/teasers or fun clips like those on Apple iTunes etc, or prefer to view them immediately on mouse-click?



Until we get mega broadband to homes and offices for streaming HD movies, for now, enjoy the following low-res slideshow of snaps from WCIT 2008 (Community photos on Flickr, including several that were captured by author using his decent N95 camera phone):

Asia Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum 2008, today (25jan08)

The dialog on the state of broadband, and sharing of experience between participants and attendees is about to start this morning at Nikko Hotel, with guests from various countries especially Japan to enlighten us with their exciting progress in this unchartering of digital territories.

The following is the complete agenda for the day (photo below shows early birds registering at arrival counter as early as 8am):

Asia-Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum 2008

(AP-WBF ‘08)

Objective: To promote the sharing and dissemination of the most up-to-date wireless communication technology, service, market and business information and trend among various stakeholders and industry.

Theme:

Broadband Communications: The Enabler of Knowledge Society

Friday, 25 January 2008

Junior Ball Room, Level 2, Nikko Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Programme

Morning
Registration
8.00am – 9.00am
Keynote Session Session Chair: Dr. Ewe Hong Tat (MMU)
9.00am – 9.25am	Keynote address 1	“"Moving a Major Broadband Agenda - Implementing High Speed Broadband and Broadband to the General Population” Mr. Zamani bin Zakariah Senior Director, MyICMS886, Technology and Standards Division, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission
9.25am – 9.50am	Keynote address 2	“Current Status of Mobile Communications in Japan” Mr. KATAGIRI Koichi, Director for Promotion of ITS Land Mobile Communications Division Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Opening Ceremony
Opening – Broadband Communications: The Enabler of Knowledge Society
Time	Events	Speakers
9.50am – 10.50am	Opening ceremony	Welcome speech by Prof. Dr. Zaharin Yusoff, President of MMU Dr. Hiroyo Ogawa, Executive Director New Generation Wireless Communications Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan Officiating speech by Minister of Energy, Water and Communications, Malaysia.
10.50am – 11.20am	Tea break & Press Conference
Session 1 Session Chair: Dr. TOKUDA Kiyohito, Oki Electric Industry, Japan
Time	Events	Speakers
11.20am – 11.40pm	Invited Speech (Session 1 – 1)	“Monetizing WiMAX in Malaysia” Mr. Michael Lai CEO of Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (Subsidary of GreenPacket) Green Packet, Malaysia
11.40pm – 12.00pm	Invited Speech (Session 1 – 2)	“ARIB’s Activities on Systems beyond IMT-2000 and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Systems” Mr. WACHI Yasuhiko Director, Land Mobile Communications Group, Research & Development Headquarters for Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), Japan
12.00pm – 12.20pm	Invited speech (Session 1 – 3)	“Research and Standardization Activity for IEEE802.15.3c mmW WPAN” Dr. KOJIMA Fumihide National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan
12.20pm – 12.40pm	Invited speech (Session 1 – 4)	“Current Mobile and Wireless R&D Activities in KDDI R&D Laboratories” Dr. SHINONAGA Hideyuki Executive Director, Strategic Planning Division KDDI R&D Laboratories Inc., Japan
12.40pm – 2.30pm	Lunch Break

Afternoon
Session 2 Session Chair: Dr. SHINONAGA Hideyuki, KDDI R&D Laboratories Inc., Japan
Time	Events	Speakers
2.30pm – 2.50pm	Invited Speech (Session 2 – 1)	"Next Generation Mobile Access Network - Super 3G and beyond -" Dr. MURASE Atsushi Managing Director, Research Laboratories NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan
2.50pm – 3.10pm	Invited Speech (Session 2 – 2)	“Emerging Wireless Technologies : What is the horizon?” Ms. Y. Fern Ko, Technical Insights, Frost and Sullivan, Malaysia.
3.10pm – 3.30pm	Invited Speech (Session 2 – 3)	“Broadband Wireless Access Technologies” Mr. NIIMI Kenji Chief Manager, Mobile Network Solutions Division NEC Corporation, Japan
3.30pm – 3.50pm	Refreshment
Session 3 Session Chair: Dr. Lee Sze Wei (MMU)
3.50pm – 4.10pm	Invited Speech (Session 3 – 1)	“Next Generation PHS with Micro-cell Technology” Mr. KAMIMURA Osamu Project Manager / Senior Coordinator Spectrum Planning Dept. WILLCOM, Inc./ PHS-MOU Group, Japan
4.10pm – 4.30pm	Invited Speech (Session 3 – 2)	“3G and its Evolution Trend” Mr. Yeow Ooh Sheng Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Malaysia
4.30pm – 4.50pm	Invited Speech (Session 3 – 3)	“Safety Driving Support System with DSRC” Dr. TOKUDA Kiyohito General Manager, Wireless Technology R&D Division Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., Japan

Strap your seat beat, and prepare to be blazed by high speed surfing.... (or at least examine how our Japanese counterparts do their thang!)

| View | Upload your own

UPDATE: News report: "KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 (Bernama) -- The government will concentrate on 2.3 gigahertz (GHz) world interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) and at the same time monitor the development of 2.5 Ghz spectrum, said Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik. Read the entire news article...

Broadband Communications - the Enabler of Knowledge Society

That's the main theme for the upcoming Asia Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum 2008 that is to be held at Nikko Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on Friday 25 JAN 2008.

My good ol' friend, Dr Yusoff with MMU is co-promoting this event which will welcome guests from our local ministries, various govervment agencies, and delegations & speakers from Japan.

[I've had the opportunity to experience Japan's broadband just recently,
and it's something like 30 Mbps today to homes -- need I say more?)

Check out the details of the event here:

http://tinyurl.com/2roxth
or
http://calendar.ictpenang.com

See you broadband enthusiasts there!

or use either of below links to add to your favorite desktop PIM, eg. Outlook, Apple iCal etc:-

XML:
http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/ree1jri0v5gh74vgdvjo2012g0%40gro...

or

ICAL:
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/ree1jri0v5gh74vgdvjo2012g0%40grou...

Godspeed for the remaining of January 2008!

Come February, Penangites can check out a Technopreneur Forum to be co-organized by MDEC and USM, and I'll likely be one of the speakers... Details coming up soon.

Which 'city' is the BROADBAND CAPITAL of Malaysia?

If you've guessed Cyberjaya being it is the first and foremost zone for Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project, or Kuala Lumpur being it is the largest city (and capital city of) in Malaysia [note: Putrajaya is the administrative capital city of Malaysia], you're a bit off by well over 300 kilometres!

The answer is Penang (or its "cities")!

As you might have known, since 2005, several zones in Penang Island and Seberang Perai had been gazetted as Penang Cyber Cities (PCC) by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC), as the first of its kind outside of Klang Valley (CyberJaya, KLCC, Technology Park etc).... [And I get to brag about it being my home town as well as my birth origin!]

Surprisingly though because neither Pulau Pinang (Penang Island) nor any of the towns in this world-famous travel destination are officially a "city" by administration or municipal governance, i.e. managed/maintained by Municipal Council of Pulau Pinang (MPPP) instead of a city council ("Majlis Bandaraya" in Malay language).

On the other hand, "Georgetown" or "Tanjung" as the capital of Penang is affectionately known for by the locals not to long ago had also been occassionally called "Bandaraya" (literally meaning "city") as showcased on several road signs, names of structures etc. (e.g. "Stadium Bandaraya"). In fact, Georgetown had been a city for a few decades since before Merdeka until around the 70s, when MPPP and MPSP (for Seberang Perai/Province Wellesley) were established by the state government for the task of municipal development. Such names and road signs had though continued to stay around until early 2000s when they were starting to be changed to "Georgetown" instead of "Pulau Pinang" or "Bandaraya", for instance, on road directional signs near the Penang Bridge.

Skipping the name sakes or "city vs. town status" for Penang, let's see what speedtest.net revealed in its latest broadband speed results:-

From the chart above, Penang clearly leads way ahead in terms of average Internet download speed at nearly 3-MBps -- more than double what average users in Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan (WP) are getting. Surprising eh? Not so... After all, despite the number of broadband users leading in Selangor (home of Cyberjaya town and the cities of Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya) and WP Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, there are more large multinational manufacturing companies in Penang, exceeding 200 in the towns of Bayan Lepas, Batu Maung and Prai etc. There are also many more high rises (buildings with ten or more floors) in Penang than in Kuala Lumpur etc, making Penang a top-25 "city" vs. KL ~ top-80 in the world in terms of the number of high rises. Such availability of high rises has made Penang a perfect candidate for fiber optic-backed wireless service which companies like PenangFon (subsidiary of MetroFon) had starting to take advantage of over the past couple years for instance.

Again, from chart above, a "cities" comparison shows that Penang towns dominate 60% of the top-10 ranking for Internet downstream speed in Malaysia, including for #1 until #5. Likewise, Penang also dominate the average upstream speed for its users similar to the downstream pattern.

Not just that, a Penang-based company/connectivity also ranks #1 in Asia, ahead of providers in Japan for instance. However, as I've noted in my previous blog during my brief visit to Tokyo, Japan clearly leads in average Internet connectivity speed surpassing 11Mbps, more than twice Internet users are getting in Singapore, the second fastest country in Asia in terms of Internet connectivity, with Hong Kong and Korea trailing closely behind -- All top-10 regions in Asia in terms of Internet speed are also in Japan (which is also fastest country in the world in terms of Internet connectivity speed, far ahead at more than twice the download speed compared to Singapore, France, Germany and the US at the bottom four in the top-10 global rank)!

Oh well, back to reality in Malaysia, it seems that it's not bad after all to be stucked in Penang all these years instead of following the steps of many who have migrated to Klang Valley in pursuit of better things that MSC is supposed to offer. However, as I've neither live in a high-rise nor in a city-like town (eg. Bayan Lepas, Gelugor, Georgetown etc.) any longer, I still have to settle with a ~1-Mbps downstream connectivity that TM Streamyx is offering at present.

It's worth to note that except for Penang which has superb fiber-optic choices, particularly for use by those big MNCs, Klang Valley and other areas of Malaysia are depending on DSL (mostly by TM, largest Government-Linked Telco), mobile broadband (200Kbps - 3.6Mbps for GPRS Edge or 3G-3.5G/HSDPA), iBurst (eg. Izzi etc), WiMAX etc.

At present, I still haven't migrated to 3.5G since I still haven't had the time to visit Celcom or Maxis to get them to bring me HSDPA in Balik Pulau without me having to ditch my cool DiGi vanity phone number (that phonetically spells both my name and commercial company brand!) -- still am waiting for the Number Portability scheme to reach the mobile scenes in Malaysia. And Streamyx at RM98/month (including the ridiculous service cut double penalty - only by TM, the monopolistic Telco of Malaysia.) is all I got besides the decent DiGi Edge that charges me as much as RM149/month -- Worse if compared to regions in North America, Europe, East Asia Pacific and Australasia, but not too bad if compared to elsewhere including South America and Africa.

This ends my sporadic spur of the moment rambling (and usual critiques) on the state of broadband in Malaysia.

I know, I know, I still owe you guys my good readers, comprehensive coverages from my back-to-back full week of ICT-centric social networking and learning experience through the events of Sifoo-Microsoft, PIKOM PC Fair (both in Penang and KLCC), ICT for Development (i4D) Film Festival, World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF3), Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) Event on the Future (GK3), MiRC Penang ICT Week (including the Arabian Night at Tanjung Bungah Beach Hotel), ICT Penang Meet @ DPMMPP etc. But I still have more networking to go thru during remaining of this week including TechBiz Penang meet @ PSDC, and miscellaneous MiRC Penang ICT Week events on Monday and Tuesday -- It seems that I had so little time to write when having to meet so many people from all corners of the world (I must have shaken hands and/or exchanged smiles/name cards with over 100 individuals from 50+ different nations, from students/young social entrepreneurs up to ministers of respective countries in the course of a single week), starting with conferences every early morning to gala dinners every evening. But, am anxiously waiting for Eid and Xmas 5-day holiday during which I'll hopefully have more time to write: blogs, business plans, company financial accounts etc. (unless of course if I were to take another vacation away from home).

Broadband 2.0 coming soon in Malaysia?

Like most of you Malaysia-based customers of TM Net Streamyx and plethora other broadband providers (really? more like many in Klang Valley only, not elsewhere!), I'm one of the users of the 1-Mbps DSL (but down to 50Kbps for international connection most of the time) and 384-Kbps GPRS-EDGE (but normally around just 200Kbps). Say, if you've heard that half of the world's the billion plus Internet users have access to "Mega Broadband" (3-Mbps or faster), let me confirm to you that, that really is true:

Check out the speed I'm getting from a public Wi-Fi here at Web 2.0 conference room (shared by dozens/a hundred plus of people attending the conference blazing out YouTube etc.): 8-Mbps downstream and over 6-Mbps upstream (at least ten times faster than what we're getting in Malaysia)-- enough for some serious enterprise data center operation:

And unlike the Streamyx "Narrowband", this amazing download speed is not just within Tokyo, but all the way to Cyberjaya:


(notice how slow the connection into Cyberjaya (downstream for Malaysians 10-million plus PCs) and much faster for going out of Cyberjaya because we don't have that many servers yet.)

Heck, the LAN connection in the hotel room here at Cerulean Tower (costs 1050-yen per day -- about the price of a meal in Tokyo) even surpassed 30-Mbps!

[That's faster than connection at many "MSC-status universities", hence don't act so surprise when not a single Malaysian IPTA is in the top-200 global rank this year -- I remember how Dato Seri JJ lashed back to me confidently in front of 100s of technopreneurs at Vistana Penang, two years ago, on how he was betting on WiMAX to villages instead of upgrading Internet to higher learning institutions immediately... (I was commenting on how I suffered greatly being cut off from the entire fast-moving Web 2.0-world when I enrolled at a local IPTA in a remote town up north for my graduate studies - To Dato JJ: Where's your WiMAX all these years?? Our universities are in the dark, including in the only "5-star" Malaysian university!!)]

Drool on guys!!

(But I hope we'll at least get 3.6-Mbps 3G soon from Maxis and Celcom - and perhaps DiGi too, now that it has made a RM700-million move for TDC's 3G license... And I heard that Streamyx 4-Mbps is coming soon to Penang -- yeah rite! I'll dream on for the "mega town" of Balik Pulau...).


[Am blogging this during Zimbra show session in Japanese language with simultaneous English interpretation after Scott Dietzen completed his lengthy part -- the slides for both sessions were in Japanese though..]

PajamaFuture: Some Joost for your Tube

A sister site of PajamaNation called PajamaFuture among others predicts the scenario for micropreneurs of 2030 (some 20+ years from today)... Yes, we're young, but we are as visionary as Malaysia Vision 2020, and we're upbeat about technologies...

PajamaFuture on "2030: THE WORLD DIVIDED IN CLANS":

John Naisbit was right:the more we integrate structures at the top (EU, WTO, OECD), the more elements disintegrate at the base. The boundaries of 150 nations will no longer matter in 2030, because the world will be a grand reservoir, in which the European Union only plays a minor part.

Our cities will have become a brand. For some time, the power used to be in the hands of the cities (the heirs of the industrial revolution) and the villages (home-ground of the farmers), but their power has flown into a new form of über-space: the ‘community’. Pioneers of this process were the ‘hoods’ of New York (short for ‘neigbourhoods’), the ‘arrondissements’ of Paris, the ‘zones’ of London (short for postal zones) and the quarters of Amsterdam. The community can be a street, a domain, an apartment building, a company department (corporate hoods) or a virtual community. There are microgeographic area maps full of numbers for future use: telephone zones, satellite footprints, internet addresses, wiring and cable infrastructure. There are ten thousands of such community disctricts over the world and every second another one arises.

These communities have developed their own identity. They have a residence network (urban grids) on a large broadband cable that they divide over several neighboorhood habitants each with their own large antennas and beamers that supply them with wifi. The communities, primarily consisting of homeworkers, are governed by community committees, the so-called ‘guilds’.

Faith Popcorn (the Popcorn Report) called this phenomenon ‘clanning’: ‘belonging to a group that represents common feelings, causes, or ideals; validating one’s own belief system.’ There are communities solely for seniors which have been extra secured with surrounding parks; there are areas for women that don’t allow men; coming-out neighboorhoods for gay people; artist neighboorhoods with an evening curfew for non-artists; and youth areas where parents are not allowed in university campus grounds.

Likewise, TV has no borders anymore... YouTube became a phenomenon in 2006 having been bought for USD 1.6-Billion by Google. In 2006 alone, YouTube consumed more bandwidth than the whole world combined in 2000! Since 2004, there have been plethora other YouTube-like services, and some even tried to revive the streaming services as popularized by the likes including RTM back in 1996! And in case you haven't heard, YouTube has indeed gone to TV beginning this month, thanks to its integration with the iTunes that powers the Apple TV.

From Apple PR: CUPERTINO, California–May, 30, 2007–Apple® today announced that it’s bringing the Internet’s most popular originally-created content from YouTube to the living room with Apple TV™. Beginning in mid-June, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV. Using Apple TV’s elegant interface and simple Apple Remote, viewers can easily browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube in the comfort of their living room.

Yes I know... C'mon Steve Jobs: Can you let us Malaysians have the Apple TVs for well under RM1K each? (They retails for RM 1,259 a piece today -- more than the amount of moolah many Malaysians make, per month). And bring iPhones quick to Malaysia!! You're killing us with all these teasers... For now, we Malaysians have to settle with burning torrented MPeg4s onto DVDs (flying coasters) and play 'em on our archaic TV sets.

In January 2007, I started learning about another tube of the future called Joost (from the founders of Skype, another billion-dollar acquision for tech giants -- eBay specifically in this case), off the posts/emails in SlashDot. Three months later, an invite from Joost arrived in my mailbox to become a member of its small but fast-growing community of beta testers. My poor broadband package from Streamyx however can't seems cope with the connectivity requirement throughout April and May 2007, even after I upgraded from the 512Kbps to the "1Mbps" plan back in March -- the shows were pausing/buffering erratically, so, I gave up and settled with other streaming services, particular Malaysia-based ones or predownload-based iTunes because even YouTube and the many streamings from overseas were too NOT-LIVE for me.

Today however, after I downloaded the latest release of Joost Beta, the Joost runs just like how a TV of the future should be! It's worth mentioning that there's another VOD service offered by a Malaysia-based company offerings streamings including live shows from TV in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand -- which I really love by the way!, but Joost simply is a completely different innovative animal. The user interface seems to come from the future lab of Google, and the channels are aplenty, and seems very customizable, unlike the ones from traditional TV stations of RTM, Media Prima etc, or even of Astro Satellite TV subscription! The full screen version is also very interactive complete with add-on "gadgets" capability including Google Chat that lets you chat with other Googlers while enjoying your shows.

[My Streamyx is still "kejap laju, kejap merangkak" though these past couple days, after my complaint made two-weeks ago likely have brought some technicians to my little hometown to fix my under-50Kbps Streamyx Broadband]

Is the world ready for borderless Tube? Not for some governments indeed. Several countries have blocked YouTube on separate incidents. Late last month, I've heard that SingTel blocked Joost... Wise move by these fearful-of-things-you-cannot-compete-with corporations and governments? Very argumentative indeed!

As long as the government and broadband providers will honor their words to bring decent broadband to citizens/customers like me, I'll continue enjoying what YouTube, Joost and their likes have to offer...

From Joost.com:

Joost isn't just about watching TV on your own. We've built in some cool features that let you chat with other channel viewers, talk to your friends in our instant messaging program (compatible with Gmail and Jabber) and even tell the world what you think of shows by rating them while you're watching. With Joost, you can share the TV experience in ways never possible before.

We also want to make it easy and fun for you to share Joost with the rest of the world. If you've got a blog or website, you can add Joost logos and screenshots to it easily. Soon, we'll have lots of other ways to spread the word. Become a Joost evangelist today!

Note that access to Joost is still through invitations only. I have INVITES though. If you want one, just join us by registering at Pajamanation.com.my and the newly setup myPajamanation@googlegroups.com and post your request email there...