Getting Hyped-Up Over HSBB

There’s so much buzz around HSBB (High-Speed Broadband) in Malaysia lately that I can’t help but write a blog post here.

Word has it that HSBB residential customers would be offered download speeds between 10Mbps and 100Mbps. These speeds are unheard of for residential “broadband” users in Malaysia and should get a lot of people excited — me included.

For years, Malaysian broadband users have been lamenting over the poor speeds. Being one of the early Streamyx adopters, I had my fair share of complaints.

The fact is the law of physics also plays a role here. The copper lines can only do so much. As they say, wired-broadband in Malaysia will never progress much until something is done to the last mile.

And indeed, certain prime areas will finally see something done to that tune. These areas will have fiber connection to their premises or homes.

Triple-Play to the Forefront

Data services is only part of the HSBB equation.

TM, the sole HSBB provider is aiming to offer triple-play services (voice telephony, data, IPTV), made possible by the FTTx (Fiber-to-the-X) technology. Triple-play is something new to the general Malaysian consumers.

Quite possibly in the future, we could have a new Astro alternative when TM’s IPTV offering comes into reality. With IPTV, residential users can look forward to Full HD programming.

For a peek of what the home of the future (enabled by HSBB) is, check out TM’s Digital Home.

International Bandwidth Capacity

All the speed advantages promised by HSBB will come to zilch if our international Internet lines are still choked up.

Let’s face it, a bulk of the traffic is international traffic. As the international bandwidth capacity is being gradually increased, we could see stricter fair-usage mechanisms to be put in place.

HSBB Roll-Out

HSBB is due to be launched at the end of Q1 2010. Residents from Bangsar, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Subang Jaya and Shah Alam will be amongst the first to experience HSBB.

In the past weeks, the TM guys were seen stringing fiber cables along the existing telephone poles in Bangsar.

The picture below is the pole just behind my house. Notice the aerial fiber distribution box that is marked with a TM logo and FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home). Click to see larger picture.

With the residential infrastructure already in place in the key areas, HSBB looks set to see the light of day!

Now, the big question: How much would subscribing to HSBB cost?

Technorati tags: tm, hsbb, broadband, ftth, fttx, triple play, bangsar