Malaysia needs quality and affordable broadband

WE have heard about the state of our broadband once too many times. The question to ask is do we pause a moment to listen to what experts or even users have to say or merely dismiss what they say?

I am referring to Singapore Business Times quoting Intel Electronics country manager for Malaysia and Brunei Ryaz Patel as saying that consumers here pay too much for broadband services and a major reason for that is Telekom Malaysia Bhd has a hold on the submarine cable landing rights.

He said there was no shortage of gateway service providers seeking landing rights because of the pent-up demand for quality bandwidth, but the Government must de-regulate or liberalise gateways to improve competitiveness by providing higher broadband speeds at lower costs.

During a press briefing on Intel’s roadmap for 2010, he observed that Malaysian consumers pay significantly more for broadband, but even to buy broadband wholesale as a service provider was “frighteningly expensive” compared with its neighbours.

Singapore users pay nearly US$85 (RM286.56), or US$10.20 mbps, for the fastest bandwidth of 100 megabits per second (mbps). In comparision, for 4mbps in Malaysia, consumers pay US$76, or US$35 mbps. Vietnam’s 3mbps bandwidth – although a tad slower – costs users US$50.55, or US$16.85 mbps, the report said.

This may not be surprising but coming from Intel, it says a lot. It also comes just weeks after the Australian Business Council said Australian businesses were put off by the slow Internet speed in Malaysia.

Malaysia Australia Business Council vice-chairman Michael Halpin said large technical documents from Australia had difficulty getting sent over because of the poor quality broadband.

“Australian and American investors see this as a nuisance and an impediment to them to do business successfully here,” the report said.

Patel believes that if Malaysia aspires to be a knowledge-based society, it needs to get more computers as well as quality and affordable broadband into more homes.

“(And) the single biggest link has to do with landing rights,” the report quoted him as saying.

Both arguments are valid. There have been hundreds of complaints by consumers over the past few years, many of which have fallen on deaf ears. Recently the Government acknowledged that the quality of Internet was not up to mark and prices consumers pay are high.

If our neighbours are able to offer better connectivity and at cheaper prices, what is Malaysia’s excuse? Investors will not wait as they have choices for foreign direct investment destinations.

The best is to listen and make changes where necessary. A liberalised environment is better than protectionism.

If there is a need to open the gateway to create competition that can lead to better service, we should be proactive about it and not continue to indulge in protectionism.

At the end of the day we have to shift into higher gears to move towards the innovation bandwagon and time is not on our side as our neighbours are working overtime to get to the finishing line first.