TM UniFi High Speed Broadband Project International Comparison

Back in September 2008, MCMC awarded the High Speed Broadband Project (HSBB) of the country to none other than TM. Fast forward to March 2010, TM announced and launched their high speed broadband packages. While it was met with instant online news coverage by bloggers, its come under fire by the heavy-users of broadband.

Note, if you visit the UniFi website, make sure you’ve got the www prefix. They didn’t make it work without it. Phbt.

Okay. So here are the plans being offered for the high speed broadband project by TM.

Package	Download/Upload speed	Monthly Data	Monthly Price (RM)
VIP 5	5Mbps	60GB	149.00
VIP 10	10Mbps	90GB	199.00
VIP 20	20Mbps	120GB	249.00

Now, let’s have a look at the broadband packages in Singapore. They’re in the midst of developing their high speed broadband, but these standard broadband packages will do.

ISP	Download/Upload speed	Monthly Data	Monthly Price (SGD)
Singtel	10Mbps / 1Mbps	Unlimited	56.90
Starhub	8Mbps / 1.2Mbps	Unlimited	81.32

I took the packages which comes closest to our high speed broadband packages based on the download/upload rate and monthly price.

Next, we’ve Australia. Who’s deployed their high speed broadband as ADSL2+ packages. Though weirdly when I was looking at their packages, providers are now promoting naked broadband packages. Not sure what’s that about.

ISP	Download/Upload speed	Monthly Data	Monthly Price (AUD)
Bigpond	20Mbps / 1Mbps	50GB	109.95

Many other Australian ISPs weren’t included because most stated speeds as ADSL2+ rather than the average numbers.

Nonetheless, this is enough information for me to write my point. Are our high speed broadband packages offered by TM fair and equivalent?

I don’t want to look at Malaysia as some 3rd world country. Therefore, I would look at the prices dollar for dollar. Not to mention, you do get what you pay for, especially in Australia.

Personally, if the government really wants to push the national broadband plan, readjust all the broadband plans for crying out loud!

This is what I told my friend in the car when discussing about UniFi and current broadband plans:

The new 5Mbps UniFi plan should be RM88 (though I expected it to be no more than RM100). Then, they should make the 1Mbps packages the minimum speeds for anything below that.

Yes, there are users who don’t use the Internet as much. But, they also don’t want to waste their time waiting for a website to load. Think about it. Faster loads can get things done much faster later. Even the lady at the wet market can answer her email orders more efficiently and get back to chopping heads of fish much quicker.

Broadband internet shouldn’t be a commodity but a necessity by now.

P.S.: Why bundle something your real market knows they’re not interested in? Did the market research go wrong? Or, are you cashing in?

5 Things To Know When You Twitter

1. It isn’t updating your Facebook status

Unlike Facebook, Twitter only has 140 characters for you to express your thoughts. There’s only so much you can tweetshrink a message before it becomes something like this:

Did U know twttr has a max 140 char length 2 post unlike Facebook? & thr is only so much U cn TweetShrink the msg before it’ll ended up lk a skool kids SMS msg 2 her friend.

Did you understand that? Even that, was lengthier by 33 characters! So, keep it simple and brief.

2. It’s for my friends – ’nuff said

When I post to Twitter, it’s because I want my friends to know about it. Yes, you may have 44, 468 phantoms on your followers list but, do all of em really read what you posted? At least, my friends do.

3. There isn’t a format to follow

But I like keeping my twitter updates structured like this:

@If any Message Shortened URL #Hashtag

To me, it’s arranged based on the priority of the content. You want to communicate the message out first. Then, share the source and trend it.

4. Updates are not private

Unless you make it protected. And if you did, only followers who you approved may read your updates. Therefore, remember that if you posted personal information like your mobile/email/IC number to an unprotected account, any Internet user can read it.

5. You can’t buy loyalty

If you’re a corporation on Twitter, you can pay as much money to Twitter advertising networks but I’ll never be loyal to your brand unless I’ve used it and I was happy.

P.S.: It’ll also be more effective if you were on Twitter so we (fans and non-fans) can communicate directly to you what we think of your product. That’s branding.

Bonus:

6. Say it and mean it

After I lodged a complaint with 1901hotdogs via Twitter, they took the initiative to settle my concern and even, reward me with a free meal. The meal was a bonus but they took action to speak to the other concerning party about my feedback.

So, don’t think Twitter is only a bunch of young immature kids. Some of these kids have the power to make your kids hate you. Seriously.

Digg Redesign in The Works

Found out Digg was having a redesign made to its current website. Whether it’s to boost user experience or cut down load time, we’ll probably find out later. But to keep its fans up to date, they’ve a sneak peek page up and running.

Based on the screenshot, what I thought Digg removed their iconic curvy yellow boxes, actually have become less curvy. They look square from the screenshot but in reality, will have a less smoothness.

The other noticeable design changes from the current website, its going to be more structured and organized. Plus, there’s a prioritized advertising space on the right side.

Now, Digg’s implemented an extended strategic under construction page to not only tease current users but continue data mining efforts of intrigued users.

How Many Hours Do You Really Use The Internet?

While I was writing my comment on UXMatters, I was thinking; how many hours does a user really spend on the Internet? In fact, how accurate is this data?

I thought this because I remember the time I had to teach my mum (50s) to use the computer and setup her email account. Therefore, I’ve been the one looking over her shoulder and answering her questions when she faces difficulty.

When a new Internet user is online, his/her actions takes prolong periods and pauses because he/she is extra cautious about them. As they become more familiar, their actions speed up with confidence.

So my question to the question; how many hours do you really use the internet? is, what type of user are you?

If you were only taught to use the Internet yesterday or 2 days ago, you could be spending twice the time to complete a task than an average user would.

Therefore, my thoughts and beliefs of the data to the question; how many hours do you spend on the internet? is easily corrupted.

A user who spends more than 4 hours on the Internet on average may not mean the user is Internet-savvy. It could be my mum accessing and sending 2-3 emails to her friends.

Hence, ensure your surveys or questions is directed at the right user.

How are You Different from Your Competitors?

This has been the question nearly all prospects get stumped on when I pose it to them. The general response I’ve been given:

My ‘insert company name‘ delivers high quality and professional customer service. And, our products are also very competitively priced in comparison to our competitors.

If you ever wondered what was marketing talk, this was it. It’s a load of smokescreen with words which could mean something to mislead you from the fact, this company doesn’t have a differentiator.

In the Internet business today:

• Anyone can setup a website design business.
• Anyone can create and customize a blog.
• Anyone can create an application (nearly).

But how many people do you know, could tell you why is their business or product different from the next?

Why do you need to know how is my company different?

If I asked you, where would I buy burgers? You’ll mostly answer; McDonalds. If I asked for fried chicken, you may most likely say; KFC. But these are huge conglomerates right?

So, if I asked you where’s the best chicken rice? You’ll give me a long list of them. Hence, how do I define what I really want here? Simple.

I’ll refine my question, where’s the best chicken rice in Old Town, Petaling Jaya? You’ll give me a shop name and if I asked why, you may tell me because the stall owner uses ‘qi gong’ to tenderize his chicken.

Now, how many stall owners you know uses ‘qi gong’ to tenderize chicken – if existed. By telling me; your designer; your account manager; your marketer; about your differentiator, I can then better communicate on your website – visually.

Therefore, what’s your ‘qi gong’?