Few days ago I was over at a Joy’s (not real name) place to discuss a web design project her friend; Joyce (not real too) wanted to talk me about. Joyce came down all the way from the United States not just to discuss the project but to holiday here in Malaysia with Joy who’s local.
While we were sitting down discussing it’s natural to use the Internet because in web design, the client will normally have reference websites to show what they are trying to accomplish. As we continued discussing to pass the time and allow the websites to load..
It continuously refused to load. We thought maybe it’s just due to the number of websites we were loading so we cut the numbers down by half. We were staring at the screen awaiting for the website references to load but still no results.
Joyce’s expression was becoming even more frustrated and soon she became a little more verbal about it. In addition, when Joy walked into the room she told us her Internet is really weird because it becomes even slower when she is on the phone.
In the end, we gave up of trying to load any website. All Joyce could do after the frustrating experience was tell me how absurd the Internet connection is. She even blurted out asking Joy if she was on broadband – and yes, she is on ADSL.
If Joyce wasn’t a good friend of Joy, I’d probably not even be getting this project because if Joyce were to experience this in my office or any place as we’re having our appointment she’d compare the quality of this service against mine.
Therefore, the no.1 reason why e-business in Malaysia is not great is cause by the irregular quality of the Internet connection. And before the excuse of ‘you pay more for better’ comes up, Joyce said she’s paying USD100 per month for something a lot less crappy than this.
How you’re suppose to judge the value of quality in this scenario is not USD1 = RM3.4 but USD1 = RM1. Based on a dollar for a dollar, the Internet connection quality we should be receiving is equivalent to our US counterparts.
If Malaysia e-businesses wants to progress further, I dare say we will not get there unless we’re assured of the quality we should be receiving. And quickly remove the weird errors like phones affecting broadband connections.
An e-business in Malaysia can not expand and be respected by international clients with this sort of frustrating, disappointing, ridiculous experiences. Especially if there are others like Joyce here in Malaysia looking for opportunities in collaboration.
Why else do you think e-business in Malaysia is not great?
Tmnet for the blame. Good one :P
I tried not to use any names because I feel the overall infrastructure for broadband here is not done right. It’s done for the sake of being complete but not for bringing high-quality although you pay a slightly higher premium for it.
interesting!
no wonder it is hard for me to shop except in lowyat forum.
The LY forum is run by techno-geeks and they know what it takes to keep the community afloat. If there is a need to upgrade the server, they will do it for the community.
However, in local websites like LY have their bay days. If the connection is too slow, you either can’t load images or you end up mistakenly double posting.
Nice place here. I found many things to be learnt. Ya, Msia broadband just sucks..
Thanks for swinging by ihz.
hmmm that is an interesting thought.
It’s true, Malaysian broadband speeds are seriously in need of an upgrade. However, since ADSL technology is a nearly global technology; as long as Joy (or Joyce) was using filters on her phones sharing the same phone line as the internet connection, using phone while surfing should not have slowed down the service.
PS:
True enough phones shouldn’t affect ADSL by now unlike the old 56k modems. However, our connections are still unsatisfying especially in terms of stability and performance. Everyone knows the backbone story.