Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Economy Pushes Malaysia to Invest in Wireless Broadband

"Broadband is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity; and it's no longer a privilege, it's a right," said Michael Lai, CEO of Packet One, speaking during a panel discussion at the CommunicAsia exhibition in Singapore. Packet One Networks is a provider of fixed wireless broadband throughout Malaysia. Their WiMAX services were introduced just last year, and though coverage is still limited, the company is aggressively growing their network.

In an interview with IDG News Service, Lai commented his belief is to invest when the economy is down. Though only 20 percent of Malaysia currently has broadband access, considerable less than nearby Asian countries like Singapore, the Malaysian government is hopeful they can reach 50% coverage by next year. That's an extremely aggressive growth plan. How will they do it?

Lai, of course, sees fixed wireless broadband as the solution... and so do we. First, the cost to roll out GSM network infrastructure across the rural landscape of Malaysia is far less than creating a terrestrial network from scratch. What's more, the speed of a roll-out is also critical for Packet One Networks' aggressive subscriber growth goals. They hope to turn their 10,000 subscribers today into over 200,000 broadband subscribers by 2010.

There are, of course, obstacles in the way. Not the least of which are the existing cellular providers with 3G broadband capability. Oh yeah, and let's not forget the economy. But it seems in this case, wireless is driving the economy, not the other way around. Malaysia's aggressive push toward rural broadband access coupled with Lai's aggressive growth goals all while capital is tighter than ever means one thing: under these economic conditions, wireless is the only way to drive such growth.

Labels: Broadband, Economy, Fixed Wireless Broadband, Rural Broadband, Rural Broadband Access