Malaysia ranked 74 out of 167 countries in term of price per Mbps on the Malaysia Economic Monitor released by World Bank. It means Malaysian consumers pay more for high-speed broadband access than those in other countries. Malaysia placed behind the regional peers such as Vietnam and countries at a similar level of economic development such as Mexico and Turkey.
“While Malaysia has made significant progress in terms of facilitating affordable access to mobile internet services, the cost of access to high-speed broadband services is relatively high compared to other countries,” it said on the report.
World Bank said that the high cost of fixed broadband internet services is partly driven by limited competition. Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) having a significantly larger market share than the leading firms in other countries, contributed to the higher fixed broadband prices in three ways.
First, while TM is the major incumbent of cable landing stations in Malaysia, rather than allowing for co-location of its stations with other operators, it instead provides point-of-access connection outside the stations and charges a higher fee, which translates to a higher cost of broadband rollout.
Second, given TM’s extensive broadband networks, it has been awarded exclusive memorandums of understanding with the government to deploy the high-speed broadband (HSBB) and sub-urban broadband (SUBB) plans, without contest. This eventually eliminates the possibility of attracting private investment by the network rollout operations.
Third, Malaysia also pays a higher IP (internet protocol) transit prices than is the case in other countries, and this is subsequently passed on to retail consumers of broadband services.
The World Bank’s assessment was prepared before TM announced new broadband plans under its Uni brand in support of the national broadband agenda. TM on Tuesday said it would offer an affordable entry-level unifi @ 30Mbps for poor folks costing under RM100. This is more than 40 per cent below the existing 30Mbps package. There would also be a re-launch of “unlimited” unifi mobile postpaid plan.
source: https://www.nst.com.my/business/2018/07/387875/malaysia-pays-more-broadband-access-other-countries