MCMC assigns 4G technology spectrum to 9 Malaysian telcos

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — Nine companies have been assigned the 2600MHz spectrum band to roll out wireless broadband services using 4G technology by January 1, 2013, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) announced today.

The companies include existing 3G and WiMAX players, and a new entrant.

They are Celcom Axiata Berhad, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, U-Mobile Sdn Bhd, Asiaspace Sdn Bhd, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, RedTone Marketing Sdn Bhd, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd and Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd.

4G refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to 3G and 2G families of standards.

The decision to award to the nine was made after a consultative and deliberation process with various technical groups, MCMC said in a statement here.

MCMC also stressed that these companies were required to pay fees in order to use the spectrum band and would not receive grants of any kind from MCMC or the Universal Service Provision (USP) Fund for the utilisation of the spectrum.

(The USP Fund is for the development and deployment of communications facilities for rural development).

[Source: BERNAMA]

1. It seems that Malaysia will be one of the earliest countries in the world to have issued the 4G spectrum
2. All the existing mobile and WiMAX operators have been given the spectrum.
3. It also doesn't mean this 4G spectrum would be LTE only since WiMAX can also be the 4G technology.
4. The final 4G technology will be announced in WRC 2011 next year by ITU.
5. The leading contenders would be LTE Advanced and WiMAX 802.16m. 

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600K Users of 3G Change to Broadband - Still A Small Figure

BERNAMA reported in the recent news "600K Users of 3G Change to Broadband" on Sept. 21, 2010. The exceprts are shown below:

About 600,000 out of the 7.9 million users of the 3G service have changed to the broadband service, said Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

The government had earlier targeted to reach a 50 per cent penetration rate for broadband which would raise the gross domestic product (GDP) by not less than one per cent.

Currently the high-speed broadband (HSBB) project together with Telekom Malaysia in the Klang Valley and several industrial areas is giving coverage to more than 300,000 premises.

As of June 2010, the broadband penetration rate had reached 36.1 per cent.

Currently, there are about 16 million Internet users in Malaysia.

1. Only about 7% of 3G users actually subscribed to Broadband services. Others, most probably only owned 3G Simcards and phones. Read my blog post regarding "A Myth: Mobile Broadband User".
2. If Malaysia's population is about 28 Million, it meant about 2.1% of Malaysian users are 3G Broadband users.
3. WIth the current rate at 36.1% in June and the target to reach 50% in end of 2010, its going to be definitely an uphill task.
4. Malaysia need a proper and healthy ecosystem. Read the following blog "DNA of a Broadband Nation".

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Malaysian Mobile Broadband Market Share Q1'10

Celcom has introduced a new Data Package.

It was reported, as of the first quarter 2010, Celcom had 52.7% share of the wireless broadband market, followed by Maxis with 25.5%, Packet One Networks (P1) with 13.7% and DiGi with 6.4%, while the rest altogether had 1.7%.

Question is: Is that based on 3G simcards or 3G data plan subscribed? :-)

How Malaysian telcos compares with other telcos around the world in Data ARPU?
Softbank which launched its iPhone has now more than 55% of its ARPU came from data traffic. Thanks to its expansion of mobile content and iPhone offerings.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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A Myth: Mobile Broadband User

It can be quite deceiving in the actual number of broadband penetration of each country. Certain countries wanted to be seen as a developed nation by declaring a high number of broadband penetration rate. What's the definition of a broadband user? For example, FCC, defined broadband as 768 kb/s download and 200 kb/s upload. If that's the definition, have we achieved this? In an attempt to declare the "number of broadband users", some telcos purposely provide the numbers below:-

1. Migrating to 3G. In the early days of 3G introduction, it has been painfully slow to have users migrated to 3G. 2G subscribers are not willing to pay for the new 3G simcards. Thus, telcos subsidized the 3G simcards by giving out free 3G simcards. 
2. 3G simcard but on 2G phones. But are these truly reflect "broadband" users when their 3G simcards works on the older 2G phones? 
3. 3G simcard on 3G phone. What if they don't even subscribe to 3G data package?
4. 3G simcard on 3G phone and subscribe to 3G data package but the speed is merely below the expected speed of 700 kb/s? Most of the time, when the telco offered them 1.2 Mb/s data package but the actual data throughput is well below 100 kb/s?

Finally, even if the telcos are able to provide the speed above 700kb/s download and 200 kb/s upload, how do we ensure that the subscribers are actually truly broadband user?

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Smartphone Myth?

A report by Michael Mace, Principal, Rubicon Consulting, Inc., (Email: mike@rubiconconsulting.com http://www.rubiconconsulting.com) in stated:-

Faced with saturated mobile phone markets, mobile operators and handset vendors in Europe and the US have been searching for new mobile data services that can drive increased average revenue per user (ARPU). But most of those efforts have ended in disappointment. Despite heavy investment, most data ARPU in the US and Europe continues to come from the Short Message Service (SMS) (Pawsey, 2006). The disappointments include:

• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was expected to produce heavy browsing of data on mobile devices, but most of the traffic did not materialize.
• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was supposed to drive extensive sharing of photographs over wireless connections. Although many users happily acquired subsidized cameraphones, the photos they take generally stay on the phones rather than being sent to others.
• The smartphone was supposed to drive a constellation of new mobile data services and applications. But smartphone sales grew more slowly than initially forecast,i and more importantly, those that were sold have generally not driven the hoped-for rapid growth in average revenue per user (ARPU). Telecom analyst Dean Bubley argues that smartphone shipment data should be heavily discounted because it "includes a huge number of 'closed' operator-customised phones developed on theoretically open OSs (eg DoCoMo FOMA use of Symbian & Linux) which are locked-down for 3rd-party software, plus a vast number of Nokia S60-based devices bought by people who neither know nor care that their device has an open 'smart' OS. The proportion of smartphones bought by individuals who knowingly choose an 'open' & flexible software platform is probably less than 20%." (Bubley, 2006)

1. But this report was written in 2007 when iPhone have not reached maturity. The new Smartphones such as iPhone 3G/3GS/4 have changed the total landscape of mobile internet. Coupled with easy to use GUI and amazing applications, the users now use the device differently from the days of Year 2007.
2. Apple, either knowingly or not have transformed the way we look at the Internet.
3. But then again, Apple is unlike any other Company, its brand was its greatest asset. "What are the great brands? Levi's, Coke, Disney, Nike," Jobs told Time in 1998 " Most people would put Apple in that category. You could spend billions of dollars building a brand not as good as Apple. yet Apple hasn't been doing anything with this incredible asset. What is Apple after all? Apple is about people who think outside the box, people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference and not just to get a job done"
4. With the introduction of iPhone in Jan 2007, iPhone 3G in July 2008, iPhone 3GS in June 2009, iPad in April 2010 and the recent iPhone 4 in June 2010, Apple has tremendously helped the growth of Mobile Internet usage around the world.

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DNA of a Broadband Nation

Wikipedia defined DNA as:-

DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is the molecule that contains the genetic code of organisms. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints, like a recipe or a code.

1. Like any human body which have different DNA, each Nation's Broadband Strategy also comprised of their own DNA.
2. In a Broadband World - the DNA stands for "Device, Network and Application". All these 3 elements are intertwined and closely knit between each other. We have seen in many implementations when a telco focused mainly either one or two elements, the end result will not be very encouraging.
3. For example, a telco believe choosing the best data network will bring customers and revenue - and thus, they chose either WiMAX or HSDPA to offer broadband services. But the growth are minimal. So, what's wrong with this approach?
4. There are times, the telcos offer their service packages with subsidized mobile phones. Additionally, they created new bill plans that include attractive free SMSes. None of this really drive the mobile data growth significantly. The data ARPU remained below 20%.
5. NTT DoCoMo's iMode is a good example how DNA works - They gave the users multiple choices of smartphones which have access to Internet. Their high speed network and thousand of applications offer a new Net experience to the users. The Japanese prefer emails compared to SMS. This approach drives their mobile data ARPU into new heights.
6. However, when it was attempted to duplicate the same approach in countries outside Japan, this strategy does not not work. Why?

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