TIME congratulates TM for bringing Malaysia’s internet up to speed

Yesterday, TM had announced several good news for its Unifi fibre broadband product. Apart from introducing their entry-level 30Mbps broadband plan, they have also announced their biggest speed upgrade yet with speeds of up to 800Mbps.

Rival TIME broadband has always been a leader when it comes to raw broadband speeds and they are doing it at very competitive prices. With the latest development, TM has shaken things up by not only having the most affordable 100Mbps plan but they are also the first mainstream broadband provider to break the 500Mbps speed barrier.

After the announcement, TIME had taken the opportunity to congratulate TM for taking a great leap in bringing Malaysia up to speed. They have also hinted that something is coming up very soon.

At the moment, TIME is offering home users 100Mbps broadband at RM149/month while 300Mbps is going for RM189/month. Their highest speed available is 500Mbps at RM299/month. Unlike TM Unifi, TIME offers symmetrical download and upload speeds. This means if you’re on a 500Mbps plan, you are also getting 500Mbps for uploads. On top of that, TIME also offers a shorter 12-month contract option but you’ll need to pay a one-time charge of RM300.

To recap TM’s new upgrade path, existing customers on 20Mbps and below will get upgraded to 100Mbps, while 30Mbps and 50Mbps subscribers will get 300Mbps and 500Mbps respectively. For those on the highest 100Mbps plan, you’ll be upgraded to 800Mbps.

If you look at TM’s current broadband pricing, their new upgraded Turbo plans will look something like this:
100Mbps Unifi – RM129/month (current Unifi 10Mbps)
300Mbps Unifi – RM179/month (current Unifi 30Mbps)
500Mbps Unifi – RM249/month (current Unifi 50Mbps)
800Mbps Unifi – RM329/month (current Unifi 100Mbps)

The Minister of Communications and Multimedia had recently called upon broadband providers to offer double speed at half the price and it looks like TM has done their part in their latest announcement. Instead of paying RM129/month for 10Mbps, you can get the 100Mbps (10X speed) for the same price.

As mentioned in their post, the ball is now in TIME’s court. Can TIME offer even faster speeds at lower prices? And can they provide a better sub-RM100 broadband plan than TM’s Unifi Basic?

As mentioned before, access to high-speed broadband is still a hurdle for most Malaysians and there are still over a million customers that are stuck with Streamyx.

Apart from TM, other broadband providers such as TIME and Maxis should also play a major role in expanding their fibre network at underserved areas. During yesterday’s event, TM had also mentioned that they are working with existing providers to increase their Unifi availability. For example, if a premise has an existing Fibre network, they could “rent” their infrastructure to deliver Unifi to your home. Instead of laying another cable, it’s more cost effective to share and this would provide consumers with more choice.

UPDATE: TIME had penned an open letter to TM this morning (14/7/2017).

According to TIME, they are committed to investing in fibre and will expand coverage wherever they can. At the moment, TIME is predominantly available at high-rise buildings where as TM has a wider footprint with over 2.8 million ports. If TIME is serious about expanding coverage, we hope that they would increase their availability in landed premises especially in areas where fibre networks are not available.