Charles F. Moreira

Time dotCom Bhd will focus on providing mobile broadband and voice services over 3G HSDPA when it launched the service commercially towards the middle of 2007, according to its head of broadband, Abdulhadi Wahid.

It will initially offer the service in the Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Baru comprising 30% of the national population, and extend it to smaller towns, covering a total of 50% of the population by the end of 2008.

Being a totally 3G operator, Time hopes to have roaming agreements with other operators in place at launch so its subscribers can still use their phones and access data over their 3G and GPRS networks outside of its coverage area.

It’s also open to signing up mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) offering 3G HSDPA service over its network.

An MVNO does not own its own network but provides mobile services over another operator’s network and Tile will most probably accept one MVNO if it has its own customer service centre and billing system or a few MVNOs if it is merely a reseller offering service under its own brandname.

To facilitate data access, Time will support a range of HSDPA modems and data cards, voice and messaging services and complex data to HSDPA phones.

These will include USB-to-HSDPA modems and gateway equipment which share the HSDPA connection with single line phones directly plugged into it, as well as PCs and handheld devices in homes and offices over fixed network cabling or WiFi connections.

HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access is a 3G enhancement which theoretically supports 14.4Mbps download speeds, though at present it only supports 1.8Mbps download, which is still faster than standard ADSL like Streamyx.

Abdulhadi believes that by the time they launch the service, the technology would enable 3.6 or even 7.2Mbps downloads.

Time began HSDPA trials in May and in FTP download tests found it achieved speeds around 1.6Mbps per user for up to four simultaneous users per cell, while speeds dropped to between 300 and 389Kbps for up to 17 simultaneous users.

Under normal Web surfing, it average speeds of 1.6Mbps per user with one user, 540Kbps per user with 10 users and 280Kbps per user with 50 users.

These speeds would support audio streaming (up to 60Kbps), online gaming (up to 300Kbps), 1MB downloads (up to 250Kbps) and video streaming (up to 300Kbps). TV requires up to 2.0Mbps, which is achievable with Category 6 user terminal equipment supporting at least 3.6Mbps.

While Time is confident demand for broadband will grow, results of surveys it commissioned show a lot of work to educate non-broadband users is still required.

Phone interviews of 316 consumers across Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru and Penang who either had or didn’t have Internet access at home found 13% of those with narrowband Internet were interested in having broadband, 42% who were not interested and 45% who did not know.

A total of 44% cited price as the main reason inhibiting their broadband uptake, with 25% saying unlimited access should cost below RM30 per month, while 19% said under RM50 per month, while 17% said they were happy with dialup.

The picture was more encouraging among the 156 business surveyed, with 53% and 52% of micro and small business respectively saying they were interested in having wireless broadband, while 48% of medium and 31% of large business were interested.

Sixty one per cent of businesses identified cited flexibility of access anytime, anywhere as a specific benefit of wireless broadband, while 21% cited easy or less difficult set-up compared to fixed as its key benefit, while 21% cited other reasons.

Time received its 3G spectrum allocation in March and submitted its detailed business plan to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission on 18 August, ahead of the 5 September deadline.

It will use its existing 3,000km of optical fibre cabling nationwide as the backhaul for its base stations. It also has 1,600km of submarine cable links to overseas destinations.