How Fast Is Your Internet Connection?

Posted by : foongpc | Monday, July 21, 2008 | Published in

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Want to watch your favourite TV shows on your computer or laptop? Yoonic has just launched its first nationwide broadband TV service and it’s free for now. This sounds good because all you need to do is download Yoonic player software and you can have access to over 50 channels.

Goodbye to Astro? Wait! Not so fast!

It all depends on how fast is your Streamyx broadband connection.

And believe it or not, my Streamyx broadband is currently slower than dial up! No kidding.

I really do not know if I’m alone or everyone else is suffering from this recent phenomenon.

When I first signed up for Streamyx broadband many years ago, it was a huge relief because I was frustrated with the slow dial up service provided by Jaring. I mean, how to surf the web when every click of the mouse entailed you to wait for no less than 2 minutes?

With Streamyx, it was a breeze. I could surf countless websites, log into my emails and download stuffs without much effort or should I say, waiting.

Unfortunately, that’s no more the case today. It took ages for me to log into my Gmail account. It took ages to watch a YouTube video with countless buffering taking place. And it took ages for my blog to appear on the screen so much so that I did not bother to write any new post for the past 1 week.

And you want me to watch TV on my computer?

I laughed out loud when I read somewhere that the Government is planning to increase the broadband penetration rate in Malaysia.

No doubt, Malaysia’s broadband penetration stands at only 16 percent of households, compared to an amazing 93 percent in South Korea or 80 percent in Hong Kong. 10 years ago, both these countries had only below 10 percent penetration rate.

The question I want to ask is how is the Malaysian Government going about increasing the penetration rate when TM (Telekom Malaysia), the Streamyx provider is monopolizing the market? Without much competition, it is no wonder that their service is below standard.

Also, TM is still using copper infrastructure when it should upgrade to fiber networks like what countries like Japan and South Korea had done.

But the main reason for the slow broadband uptake must be the very expensive subscription cost. I’m currently paying RM88 per month for Streamyx which offers a speed of only 1Mbps (megabit per second).

Compared to Japan which cost only about RM2 monthly per Mbps, don’t you think we are overpaying for our broadband connection? Most other countries do not charge more than RM6 per Mbps, so I have to say Malaysia have one of the most, if not the most expensive broadband connection in the world!

You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that we are paying more than 10 times higher than most other countries. And we are all making such a big fuss over the petrol price hike!

Not only that. Many countries are already offering speed up to 10Mbps or higher and we are still stuck with the dinosaur era of 1Mbps!

Streamyx recently offered 4Mbps broadband but with a ridiculous price tag of RM268 per month. Tell me who can afford that! Even if you are loaded, would you want to pay that kind of price when it merely costs RM24 or less in other countries?

Now if I cannot log into my Gmail account at 1Mbps, I have no choice but to conclude that Streamyx sucks big time!

(9) Comments

  1. Ø®åñGêЪ¥s said...

    i dont agree malaysia being having expensive broadband in the world.i studied in australia 2 years ago and u should be grateful that streamyx doesn't cap our bandwidth.
    http://www.esc.net.au/adsl_home.php
    1500/256k

    5gb$49.90

    15gb $59.90

    25gb $69.90

    50gb$99.90

    100gb $159.90

    always compare with japan and korea eh, u must be out of your mind..even the US can't beat them. use some sense please.
    oh and 4mb is rm160,get the combo package. don't be noob

    July 21, 2008 at 11:33 AM
  2. KY said...

    I agree to shinigami. There are many countries that, while giving higher bandwidth, asks you to pay by gigabytes. very teruk.

    July 21, 2008 at 2:11 PM
  3. foongpc said...

    shinigami, thanks for your explanation. I still think that streamyx is expensive given that the connection is sometimes slow and inconsistent. If the Govt seriously wants to increase broadband penetration rate in Malaysia, they will have to find ways to lower the monthly subscription cost and at the same time improve on the quality of the broadband connection.

    As for the RM160 combo package for 4Mbps, I'm not using the combo package to do the comparison.

    ky, thanks for dropping by! It's true that there are many countries that charge higher, but is their broadband good quality or inconsistent like Streamyx?

    July 21, 2008 at 4:33 PM
  4. Anonymous

    I pay NZ$90 for 30GB at up to 7.5kbps. After that, $2 per GB.

    July 21, 2008 at 11:38 PM
  5. Unknown said...

    my family thought its an area problem. guess we are not alone.

    July 26, 2008 at 5:29 PM
  6. Anonymous

    Hello
    I'm quite interested with all the comments here.
    I'm studying in Russia and find that the internet here in much much much better than streamyx. Well yeah, I had to pay by Gb but still its not so bad. I can watch any videos or movies online without buffering and plus, torrent downloads are much faster than in Malaysia. Since they didn't block foreign ip for peer unlike TMnet which only allow you to P2P from local...

    March 2, 2009 at 5:15 AM
  7. foongpc said...

    chawtimes, thanks for your comments. There you go! I'm sure you understand my frustration with Streamyx. You may have to pay more in Russia but when the the speed is fast and it's reliable, it's worth it! I just don't know when Streamyx is going to improve. So sad...

    March 13, 2009 at 11:38 PM
  8. Caroline said...

    uh-oh1 but i never face prob in using streamyx so far. lol.

    March 30, 2010 at 3:23 PM
  9. Lazarus

    Quite helpful information, thanks for your article.
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    December 7, 2011 at 11:52 AM