Case Studies on Malaysia and Singapore Internet Broadband speed.

As I am into Final Year Project, I make a little case study by myself and I have picked up a very random topics on why the internet speed is comparably snail speed slow compared to the Singapore broadband speed.The broadband here is all referred to the wired broadband. All of this information as they makes some sense by logical thinking, it does not backed up by actual data research, which is important process in R&D after all.It is just my opinions. After researching using the Internet. :P I make some of the conclusion which are not been proven yet. 

Case Study: Comparison of Malaysia and Singapore Internet Speed


1: The competition among wired broadband ISP.


In Singapore , there are at least 4 major competitor of ISP (Internet Services Provider) which covers a majority of Singapore areas namely M1, Starhub, Pacnet and Singtel. In Malaysia, there are only TMNet Streamyx  which cover the most majority places in Malaysia. In Malaysia there are around 28 million people according to 2009 census estimates and for Singapore there are around 5 million people. Hence, if taken of calculation of ratio of ISP per citizens. In Singapore there are roughly 1 million customers per ISP and in Malaysia 28 million customers per ISP. Hence, the Streamyx is lacking in terms of broadband pricing , services and the coverage areas because there are no strong competitors to fight the dominance of Streamyx yet to make them feel threatened enough to push the cost of wired broadband down, meanwhile in Singapore, there are 4 major players of ISP veining for limited customers pools which force them to push the cost down of broadband access to attract the customers. 


2: Internet policy in both countries are vastly different.


The first Internet trial services started in Singapore in 1987 meanwhile in Malaysia the internet started in 1995 for dial up access. The Singapore also launched Singapore ONE project to include broadband access for its citizens in 1998. Meanwhile in Malaysia, the Government had no initiatives to roll out a major plan to include a widespread broadband access across the countries although Malaysia had only about 18% of broadband penetration in Malaysia. Also the television programs in Mediacorp such as Golden Oldies and also in Just Follow Law movie also introduces senior ages citizens to the online web surfing, blogging,forum chatting and even looking up recipes online whereas in Malaysia, you couldn't see any of it yet. 


3: Population density 


The population density is also another major factor in keeping cost down. The more crowded the better as it is much more easier and cheaper to install broadband connections. Singapore with population density of ~ 7000 pops/km 2 as compared to 85 pops/km 2. Hence, we can inferred from the statistic that if people tends to live in a more packed cluster, it will be much more easier and cost effective to connect them with wired broadband in high rise apartments compared to sparsely populated bungalow / kampung houses in many area of Malaysia. 
Also it affects the speed of the Internet, as the signals travels farther in the copper line, the signals speed may slow down due to the impedance. In case for Singapore, they need just to install the base node in the base of every apartment and link them to the upstair apartment meanwhile in Malaysia the base node may need to carter to consumers living few kilometers apart. 


 4: The openness of the network


The open network in this context means that each ISP must share the costs of each cable that sends Internet services to the people homes. The Singapore FCC policy enforces the big player ISP must share the cost of the cable have embraced this type of sharing to encourage more startup ISP to provide Internet services such as OpenNet, Nuclues Connect and more recently QMax to grow. In Malaysia, there are non existing enforcement which only let the Telekom Malaysia to dominate the Internet scheme which breeds the anti competitive culture. As such, we can see the "major" ISP player are more localized in terms of providing Internet access such as MetroFon provide services to the KL and Selangor area, PenangFon caters to the Penang island, TIME/HSBB/NasionCom caters in places around CyberJaya, Klang Valley, KL and Selangor. 


References :
Uncensored Internet (Thank you,High Speed P1) and Google suggestion


Below is the Appendix compiled to the report.