Tag Archives: broadband

The Internet = Oxygen Part 2

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This has never happened to me before, since going online about 12 years ago. I’m referring to an Internet outage which occurred locally in Malaysia yesterday. It affected thousands of users in four states—Perlis, Kedah, Perak, and Penang. I’ve learnt through experience that if my Internet conks out unexpectedly, the fault is usually at the ISP’s end, unless I forgot to pay my broadband bill (I have that on auto payment anyway). It went south about 4:30 PM local time yesterday, and dang—it was hard for me! To be cut off from the rest of the world, yikes! No email, no Windows Live Messenger, no browsing, ugh.

So I did the most reasonable thing. Called up the ISP, of course I had to wait—I guess they were deluged with calls from thousands of irate and frustrated Net users. I suppose it’s no point for me to vent my anger on them—when I finally spoke to someone they told me to wait it out. I go to bed, awake today, and boot up the computer. Any Internet? Nope, no luck. Still out. Called them again, they gave me the stock reply that their technicians were hard at work on it. Patience, patience. Alright, let me see—I’ll go do a mundane chore like ironing clothes. I pop in a Mahler CD into my computer—ah bliss. Bernard Haitink conducting Mahler’s 6th with the Berlin Philharmonic (what a fantastic performance). Soon I’m engrossed (yeah, believe it or not) with my ironing, until Network Magic beeps and that’s the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard—the Internet’s back! Yay!

What with the damaged undersea cables earlier this month and now this, I figured TM Net (my blessed ISP) should give a rebate or refund of this month’s bill to me. Yeah, dream on. As if they would be so gracious.

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

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Fed-up with my ISP

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Here in Malaysia the main provider of broadband to the masses is TM Net, which offers its Streamyx (or Screamyx, to its unhappy users) broadband packages to users like myself. I started off with the 512KBps package in 2004, and upgraded to the 1 MBps package shortly thereafter. Yes I know, this is what people in other countries call a “fast dialup.” To me it’s really like third-class broadband, but at least it’s broadband.

Streamyx’ service and speed have gone down the tubes since last year. Slow access to international websites is one of the most frequent complaints. The main problem is the monopoly TM Net holds over broadband in this country. From what I’ve read, other broadband service providers here have to piggy-back on TM Net’s network of cables and whatever in order to serve consumers. So that means they have to pass on these charges to us. That gives TM Net an edge in pricing and availability. And that sucks.

I’m sick of their fluctuating speeds. It’s normal one week, and then slow the next. They have mentioned time and again about rolling out high-speed broadband, but it’s always only talk. Our neighbor to the south aka Singapore has had high-speed broadband for ages, up to 10 MBps (visit the Singtel website and see for yourself). Singapore’s broadband penetration for consumers is a staggering 99.9%, whereas in Malaysia it’s around 21%. Read all about it here. Can’t blame people for not signing up if the service and speed is so bloody awful.

These people responsible need to be given several good kicks in their arses to improve the broadband service. I tell you, I’d ditch Streamyx without a thought if Singtel were able to offer their broadband services here.

Here endeth my rant.

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