Open Floor Discussion With PacketOne Staff

During my recent visit to GreenPacket’s office for their special tour, a group of us with selected key staff from PacketOne Networks (P1, for short) had an open floor discussion. The discussion was to openly share what we thought of the Internet in Malaysia, its offerings and our expectation from P1.

The moment I heard this, I knew finally here’s a Malaysia ISP who really wants to make a difference. And if you know me well enough, this is a difference I’d support without second thoughts. Simple, because Malaysia has a large pool of talent but they’ve been mistreated, misunderstood and under appreciated. Don’t you want to put a stop to this?

Representing P1 during the session were:

• Billy Lee (Technical Officer)
• Christina Tang (Director of Brand/Marketing Communications)
• Kenny Wong (CMO)
• Chong Chee Kong (Assistant Manager of Online)

In all my business dealings so far, I’ve never seen the more senior staff getting involved in a normal discussion. Especially when this discussion isn’t about how much money the company should be making or who should be fired. This to me shows how committed and passionate are people at P1.

During the session, I threw a lot of questions and gotten back a lot of answers. Some of them are long awaited ones many now are asking.

When is their WIMAX service coming to Petaling Jaya?
It was mentioned their aim was to cover half of Klang Valley by year-end. However, my area in Kelana Jaya will only be covered year-end or Q1 2009.

How is P1 addressing rumours relating to the fair usage policy in Malaysia?
Billy was explaining clearly to everyone the actual implementation of fair usage wasn’t to limit users. It was created to inform users the providers will manage their bandwidth – at least, that’s what P1 would do.

How will a P1 Wimax user know if they have exhausted their usage limit (20GB)?
They are looking into developing an application so customers may check online at their website later. This is welcoming because while in Melbourne, this was exactly what they provided their cable users.

What’s the difference between the Wimax personal and Wimax business packages?
This was awkward because I found out there is no significant difference now. They mentioned the only differential is the support response. But they are looking into more differentiating benefits later. And despite this, their customer service have openly informed their potential subscribers to allow the decision to be made by us instead of them hard selling. :)

When is the USB Wimax modem launching in Malaysia?
They were giggling when this was asked. Mainly because they know well many are now not asking much of where can they get Wimax but when is the Wimax USB modem available. Well, the answer given was it’ll be launched in Q1 2009.

Other related news shared by the staff:

• P1 Wimax is rolling out in Alor Setar.
• The P1 Flasgship Store or Customer Service Center is opened every day. Even on weekends, from 9am to 9pm.
• P1 looks out for online reviews to be shared in their email newsletters.
• Considering creation of a new package specifically for heavy users in Malaysia.

At the end of the session, we were posed the question; Would you subscribe to a package for heavy users? I simply nodded and said; yes.

Indeed, thanks to folks at P1 for inviting me to this discussion. I’m now feeling a little more at ease knowing we have a provider who is doing this not only for the money. But, the Malaysia Internet industry.