Its not too often that one can say, “I told you so…” but here is a case of me getting it right….
On the 2nd Feb 2009 I wrote a post called Afzal Rahim and Time dot Com and in the post I said :
My takeaway from our short conversation is that TdC will not only survive, but will become a real market competitor to TM in the spaces that they compete.
My comments were in sharp contrast to what B.K. Shidu’s analysis as reported:
October 9, 2008 Let Afzal do his ‘magic’News Analysis by B.K. SIDHU, The Star
The reason why Afzal’s proposal was accepted over many others was because he just wanted to focus on the wholesale and enterprise business and not compete head-on with Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) in the retail market.
This had been a consideration for Khazanah, which is also a shareholder in TM.
In yesterdays papers (3rd Feb 2009) which is exactly a year after my post this is what was reported:
KUALA LUMPUR: TIME dotCom Bhd (TdC) has launched its TIME Fibre Broadband high-speed Internet service that offers up to 50mbps data transfer speeds.
The service is currently available to residents in only seven locations in Mont Kiara – Pines, Palma, Pelangi, Sophia, Astana, Bayu and Damai.
Realising the possibilities: Afzal talking at a press conference when he introduced a high-speed Internet servcie yesterday.
TdC wants to make the entire Mont Kiara area fibre-capable by the end of next month and launch it in KLCC and its surrounding areas by the middle of this year, said chief executive officer Afzal Abdul Rahim.
He said the fibre-optic network used by TdC would connect directly to consumers’ homes to deliver new levels of speed.
According to Afzal, fibre-optic cables could carry 1,000 times more information than the current prevalent copper-centric and hybrid networks.
“We have no copper, no wires, only pure fibre-optic,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Afzal claimed that the TdC was currently the only provider of 100% direct-to-home fibre-optic Internet connection.
“The idea behind this new service is in realising the possibilities of big bandwidth broadband, where download and upload speeds range anywhere within a mere five seconds to five minutes for mp3 files, video clips and even high-definition movies,” he said.
In Malaysia, he said it was throttled to 2mbps, the country’s average broadband speed.
Purchasing and downloading a 3.16-gigabyte high-definition movie on Apple iTunes was throttled to 5mbps per second.
However, Afzal expected the external websites’ level of service to improve in the future as the country’s broadband speeds improve.
Fees start from RM149 per month for a 2mbps package, with the option to “Boost” speeds up to 10mbps for 10 hours per month.
It costs RM199 for 5mbps with Boost of up to 50mbps for 15 hours a month.
The upper-end package costs RM329 for 10mbps and the option to Boost up to 50mbps for 30 hours per month.
The Boost feature can be activated by the customer through a self-care portal on TdC’s website.
For more information, log on to www.time.com.my.
MindSpring 