Broadband or Broadfraud?

By PAKAC LUTEB

About Proton as mentioned below, it is not an absolute monopoly, there are other car brands in Malaysia. However, Proton has never had to compete in a fully open market. Proton has been subsidised and protected, in that way it is a monopoly. Monopolies are situations where there is a company not fully exposed to competition in a market.

The recent Oxford report (sponsored by Cisco) and reported in Malaysia
Today regarding Broadband service of many countries, confirms what
many Malaysians have long suspected.

The blogs and forums are full of tales of slow and unstable and
intermittent Malaysian internet service.

Malaysian ISPs tell their customers that service is provided on a
"best effort" basis, meaning there is no benchmark, whatever the speed
or uptime may be, the ISP is doing it's best, so don't expect more.

Customers of Malaysian ISPs should explore the website of the
Malaysian Multimedia Commission regarding the matter.

In the website they will find that a benchmark actually exists, so
many percent of advertised speed so many percent of the time.

The website notes that ISPs can be fined for failing to provide the
required level of service.

3 problems:

1) Malaysians don't demand for the service promised.
2) The quality of service required of ISPs is not enforced by the
Multimedia Commission.
3) There is no real competition amongst Malaysian ISPs.

In countries overseas ISPs compete for customers vying to offer the
best service at the lowest price.

Overseas ISPs give the customer COMPETENT TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE when
there is a problem, otherwise they will LOSE that customer to a RIVAL
ISP.

Malaysian ISPs, like many Malaysian companies, usually provide
clueless customer service, that is, when it's possible to contact
customer service.

One word describes the situation (and the situation with Proton cars too):

MONOPOLY

Competition leads to excellence, monopoly leads to mediocrity.