It is not strange that monopolisation occurs in every single field including IT , or Information Technology (or ICT, whichever suits you).
The benefits of monopolisation is that it allows everyone to follow one's standard, one's way of progress and one's way of handling of problems, procedures' and all that. When you follow all the above,this will avoid deviation from the standards created by monopolising company / organisation. Everyone will just follow with no questions asked.
In the end, everyone is happy (or sad) and life goes on.
BUT, there's a BIG BUT (no pun intended) here. Because monopolisation does not encourage deviation, it forces everyone to accept whatever standards created by monopolisation organisation , be it good or bad.
In the case of Broadband providers in Malaysia, it seems everywhere you go. The cheapest still is Streamyx from TMnet. (yea I know you TMnet fckers, smile as much as you want). But, everytime someone applies for TMnet Streamyx is like a "try-your-luck" experience. Sometimes you have to wait for "port-to-be-available", sometimes you don't. Basically, there's just no guarantee that you can ALWAYS get TMnet Streamyx. I mean what is this?! Because TM monopolises the Broadband market, other players can't do shit about it. It's a take it or leave it situation. There's no saying of "oohh since TMnet can't provide Internet to me, I'll go for another company". There's no such luxury for broadband users in Malaysia (unless you live in the urban areas of course). I assumed that politics does play an important role to ensure that TMnet is one and cheapest broadband provider around all broadband players. However, there's a still a little hope. Introducing 3G, the next "cheapest" solution. As with alternative solutions, there's always a problem.
Coverage. Although 3G coverage has improved a lot over the years, (Celcom touted the widest 3G coverage of whole Malaysia), it is still insufficient. The rural areas are still in the meagre GPRS coverage speed which is only up to 115.2kbps, which sometimes even dial-up can be much better. The only drawback is for dial-up there's no unlimited package, while GPRS has unlimited usage package (eg. Digi prepaid unlimited RM149, when your GPRS data usage is up to RM149 within the month, it will not incur any more charge WITHIN that month). Some of you may argue why these people staying in these rural areas needs fast Internet access anyway, well, some of these people are staying there because of their work. People who work in agriculture industry usually have their agriculture site, eg. nurseries, estates situated far away from town. These people need Internet access to check with their suppliers / vendors about any issues related the agriculture products they are using. Imagine driving 2 hours to town just hand in an Excel report in a USB drive. Times that by 5 or 6 days, this will caused wastage of fuel, time and financial resources. By this time, you will wondering is there still hope yet for rural areas to get high speed broadband access. Fortunately, there still is. Enter Satellite Internet. The final frontier. sort of.
The marvel of Satellite Internet is that it basically has no geographical issues. There's no "you're too-far-away-from-our-exchange" issue or coverage issue. This is because regardless of where you are, satellite receiver should be able to beam as well as receive signals from the satellite in the sky. So, no matter where you are, you're covered. 1 satellite or another. Again, there's a catch. For satellite Internet, it's always more expensive than Streamyx that is providing the same bandwidth, say for the 1Mbps package, it costs around RM100++ for monthly access fees, but for satellite Internet with the same speed , the monthly access fees can costs up to 4-5 times the price of Streamyx access fees. So, again it's up to the cusstomer to decide. Take it or leave it. Again, politics plays a role to make sure that prices have to be more expensive than Streamyx. (If not, everyone will be running out to get satellite. Now, THAT would really hurt Streamyx. TM, you won't be happy if this happens right?)
In the end, I guess the monopolisation of TMnet (as well as politics) has played an important role to ensure that Streamyx survives the day while its competitors hold to whatever scraps left by them. In other words, no one is playing fair. Those who claim they are, are just a bunch of lying bastards. THE END.
