The recent news reports revealing that Malaysia is lagging behind our less developed neighbours such as Thailand and Sri Lanka in internet speed and broadband access is a great disappointment to all Malaysians.
One reason that Malaysia, who’s average broadband speed is only 5.0Mbps (ranked 70th in the Akamai State of Internet Report) compared to Thailand’s 8.6Mbps (ranked 42nd) and Singapore’s 12.7Mbps (ranked 14th) is probably the high cost of broadband, that is keeping higher speeds out of reach of ordinary Malaysians.
In Thailand, a 15Mbps broadband connection only cost RM72 (590 Baht), compared to UniFi’s RM211 for a mere 10Mbps connection back home.
Higher speed internet is available in Malaysia, such as TM’s UniFi (up to 20Mbps) and Maxis Fibre Internet (speeds up to 100Mbps). However, due to extremely unaffordable prices, these packages are out of reach for most Malaysians.
The Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Salleh Said Keruak must take responsibility for this state that we have sunk into, and to fix it. Government policy in at the centrepiece of promoting competition among industry players, and it has become apparent that we need a shake-up in Malaysia.
This policy, the National High Speed Broadband project, has led to Telekom Malaysia, a sole company owning most of the national broadband infrastructure in this country. TM’s UniFi, which rolled out in 2009, has remained priced virtually the same today, 6 years later, causing Malaysia to slide in competitiveness of internet pricing and penetration in the region.
Salleh, as the minster in charge, needs to seriously revamp the framework for Malaysia’s broadband services, to introduce more competition among industry players that will ultimately drive broadband prices down, and with that, increase the accessibility of high speed to all Malaysians.