Recently, the Minister of Communications and Multimedia had requested TM to submit a report on its steps to tackle the Streamyx issue. TM has confirmed that they are committed to solving the issue and they will be submitting the proposal within a month.
According to MCMC, they are confident that TM as the main fixed broadband service provider has the resources and capacity to upgrade and expand its existing high-speed broadband infrastructure. They added that TM can also optimise their existing infrastructure to reduce cost and expedite implementation.
After meeting with Gobind Singh, TM says they are continuing to explore various fit-for-purpose technologies as well as optimising existing industry mechanisms in order to deliver a better broadband experience nationwide.
One of the possible solutions is Giga Wire which is currently being tested by YTL Communications. It uses existing copper wires to deliver fibre-like speeds and according to YTL Communications, they managed to get as high as 876Mbps for downloads.
As of last year, TM has 1.27 million Streamyx customers and so far, the telco has upgraded 226,000 out of 340,000 Streamyx customers that are residing in fibre coverage areas. Meanwhile, 973,000 Unifi customers have already received their turbo upgrade with speeds up to 10X faster.
The regulatory body also says the initiative to bring Streamyx users up to speed is in line with the government National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) which targets to provide fast, high quality and affordable broadband service for the rakyat. The MCMC believes that upgrading the Streamyx service will benefit users in many ways including expanding online business opportunities, increasing production efficiency of SME and attracting more investors to sub-urban areas, as well as human capital development through e-learning.
