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KUALA LUMPUR: Areas that contribute significantly to the gross domestic product will be among the first to experience Telekom Malaysia Bhd´s High- Speed Broadband (HSBB) service at "very competitive" rates.

Telekom group chief executive officer Datuk Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said Bangsar, Shah Alam, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Subang Jaya in the Klang Valley would be the first four areas to enjoy the service by the end of next year.

"These high-economic impact areas are collectively referred to as Zone 1," he said.

Other priority areas include Iskandar Malaysia and key industrial and commercial parks in the country.

"HSBB packages, which include voice, video and data, will be priced competitively. Our aim is to make the HSBB retail offering a premium experience without a premium price tag," said Zamzamzairani.

"We have conducted two consumer studies to determine the best packages to offer to customers. We will be making announcements closer to the date of the launch next year."

HSBB is based on fibre optics core and backbone infrastructure, and offers Internet access speeds ranging from 10 megabits per second to one gigabits per second.

The current maximum access speed is 4Mbps.

With such speeds, HSBB subscribers will be able to download movie and music files within minutes, enjoy YouTube videos without the disturbance of buffering or jerking and communicate through high-resolution video-conferencing.

They will also be able to watch television in high-definition format, up to the standard of "blue-ray" DVDs.

"The benefits of fibre optics include higher bandwidth capacity and increased reliability and stability.

"Fibre optics also offers the ability to scale up bandwidth whenever required," said Zamzamzairani.

Business users would have access to new high-bandwidth applications, such as managed services and converged solutions, he added.

"For example, businesses can outsource the management of certain functions, such as accounting, data administration and storage, to organisations that specialise in these services.

"Data can be recalled, processed and sent back and forth to the managing organisation at any time, thus saving costs.

"The HSBB service will also offer businesses better and wider access to domestic and international markets."

Zamzamzairani said, it was not feasible yet to offer the service nationwide due to its high cost.

by Chandra Devi Renganayar

Published Date : 15 November 2009  

Source : New Sunday Times