Of broadband gimmicks and the like

By: biatch0

I like to think of myself as a techie, a person who is into computers and the like. I have a private LAN at home consisting of 7 computers spread out over 3 rooms. I hold a high ranking in the computing power benchmark 3DMark2001. I lovingly care for all 7 of my computers and consistently try to find ways to make my babies less lonely by adding another computer now and then. I keep my computers in tiptop condition, constantly upgrading each and every one, more or less leveling the playing ground with the
exception of my main box. But how can I consider myself a techie with a major
piece of the pie missing. No techie is whole without a broadband connection,
and the lame fibre optic telephone line I have is exactly what it is… lame.

Sure, my 56k is probably closer to true 56k than other people using copper
cabling, but heck, one feels mighty inadequate when talk of downloading at
speeds of more than 7k/sec surface. This is my perspective on what our darling Malaysian government has in terms of “broadband”.

Just a small overview of the
main providers I know are “currently available”.

TM
Streamyx The broadband solution by the country’s largest telecommunication company. Offers speeds up to 2mbps, at prices close to 2k. See the amazing similarities? Currently the most widely available broadband solution in the country.

Maxis Ibiz
The most popular cellular communication company’s attempt at providing broadband. Prices are
somewhat similar to the Telekom Malaysia (see above) solution, but
coverage area is uh, probably as bad as a handphone kept in a air tight lead
container.

TIME Broadband
From the same group that brings you Time Highway Radio comes the most promising solution, with the most
reasonable price tag (at least in this blessed country). Coverage is about the
same as Maxis Ibiz.

Jaring J-Band The country’s first ISP, now bought over by Telekom Malaysia but running under its’ good ol’ name because of the havoc caused by all its users which hated Telekom Malaysia (which will now be referred to as TM). Prices are sky high, but speeds are around the opposite end.

I have chosen not to list the other minor broadband providers for the simple reason that most of them
just don’t have what it takes in my opinion, at least most of them. Those that rely on cables have no chance whatsoever simply because pretty much the entire country has telecommunication needs provided by TM, and I’m quite sure they won’t be stupid (or have guts enough) to let those broadband providers just make use of their infrastructure, at least not for a hefty price, of which
most just goes into someone’s pocket without the rest of the world knowing.

What this entire fuss is about is basically my attempt to get TIME Broadband to hook me up with a
decent always on connection. I’m not asking for much, heck I’d be happy with
56k always-on if it was at a reasonable fixed rate. Anyway, the odyssey begins here.

Once upon a time, in a country
called Malaysia, there was this company called TIME. It offered mobile/fixed telecommunication services and was a minor ISP. All of a sudden, there came a great thunderstorm, but there was no thunder or rain. The only thing that came
down was a whole lotta bull, it had the word broadband printed on it. Suddenly the entire country was talking about broadband. ISP after ISP started offering this funny thing called broadband, but for prices that were more suitable for people who were willing to sell their bunghole to some anonymous gay guy. TIME couldn’t be left out, so it started advertising it’s broadband service. Hmmm, something is missing, oh yeah, they didn’t have broadband yet. Nevertheless, they started advertising. In clear print on their webpage:

“TIME plans to release its broadband service to all high rise buildings by the end of 2000, and to all residential areas by end 2001.”

The crowd went wild, everyone wanted TIME’s solution, for it was the only one that did not require anonymous gay sex to pay for it. But the little something that was missing earlier was still missing, namely the service itself. Everyone got pissed off. The End.

Well, that’s how my story goes. I have called numerous times, emailed even more, and even pulled whatever
puny strings I have but there has been no positive response. My emails got forwarded and re-forwarded, so did my calls. They even ended up giving people false hope just to keep the interest. I received an email from someone working in TIME,
and the person said that TIME serviced apartments (telecommunication
services provided by the above said company) such as mine, would be able to get the service earlier, probably around July 2000. That was a long time ago, and to be fair, they have come a long way since then. They now have the service available in 2 apartments… out of god knows how many.

All this from the country
that has the “MSC” or Multimedia Super Corridor. Does that name sound familiar? Maybe, maybe not, but it was basically a get rich scheme. For whom? No one knows. How much? No one knows, or at least doesn’t say it out loud. I
have a nice glass of vodka with me now, so here’s to the MSC, broadband, and Malaysia. GG.

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