Sunday, August 17, 2008

Malaysia’s Broadband Networks

In one of my posts, I noted that Packet One, a Malaysian firm, was about to roll the country’s first WiMAX wireless broadband network. Blogger Neo immediately said that he would stick to his existing ADSL (wired broadband) service.

Packet One would roll out its service first in Klang Valley, a region that covers Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding area. Here it would compete with ADSL service offered by TM, and 3G/3.5G offered by Celcom, Maxis, U Mobile, and soon DiGi. Given that WiMAX modems are expensive and bulky, Packet One will have a tough battle ahead.

Which makes me wonder: why doesn’t it launch the service outside Klang Valley?

Blogger Anne who lives in Perak complained that her area had no broadband service at all – neither ADSL nor 3G. Should Packet One launch its service in Perak first, I am sure a lot of people would sign up. Of course, market for Perak is no match compared to that in Klang Valley, but competition is also less intense. Packet One should have what marketers call first mover advantage over much of the state.

All major communication firms in Malaysia – be it Celcom, DiGi, Maxis, TM or U Mobile – launch their respective services in Klang Valley first. Then they expand to Penang and Johor Bahru; then to Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu; then to the rest of the nation. Why can’t they break away from this rigid pattern?

5 comments:

  1. hmm.. they trying to play safe with the highest population area first ? :P

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  2. bleah~~ they really pilih kasih people~!!! choose the big area to launch the market~!
    cuz i got call once to celcom & ask it our area is it got any signal of 3G? she say none~
    but if u really sign up for the package of Celcom~ it will count in GPRS!!==" hey~ tats more expensive rite?

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  3. You have to go really ulu to find a place not covered by TM Streamyx perhaps?

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  4. coz ppl at ulu places dont surf net as much as ppl in city.. so more profit in the city lor.. more market and demand~

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  5. 迷迭香
    Sometimes it is worth to take risk.

    anne
    GPRS is 2.5G le...

    neo
    From the info in TMNet's webpage, I think Sreamyx's coverage is limited.

    cbenc12
    Have you heard of this story?

    A shoe firm sent 2 people to survey the market at a remote place. The pessimistic one returned and reported, "There is no market. The people there don't wear shoes." The optimistic one reported, "The market potential is huge. The people there have no shoes to wear!"

    ReplyDelete