TIME Fibre gives glimpse of broadband future

TIME dotCom Bhd (TdC) (5031), a telecommunications group, has provided a glimpse of how future broadband service will be, with the launch of its newest broadband package.

Dubbed TIME Fibre Broadband, it offers users an Internet access speed of up to 50 Megabits per second (Mbps), the fastest for residential customers so far.

For a start, the company will make its service available to residences of high-rise condominiums at Mont'Kiara in Kuala Lumpur. By the end of June next year, the service will be available to most high-density areas in the Klang Valley.

"We will be in downtown KLCC (Kuala Lumpur city centre) around the second to third quarter ... by first half 2011, we will cover 75 to 80 per cent of the high-density areas," said TdC chief executive officer Afzal Abdul Rahim during a live demonstration of the product in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Afzal declined to reveal how much it costs to roll out the service. However, he hinted the company will spend as much as RM150 million on capital expenditure in 2010, which is what it usually invests annually.

TdC also expects to break even on its investments in less than three years.

The group's broadband offering comes in three packages - the 2Mbps, 5Mbps and 10Mbps. Subscribers will get at least 10 hours a month of free 50 Mbps "boost".

This means that customers of the 2Mbps package, for instance, can surf the Internet at a speed of up to 50Mbps for 10 hours a month.

Larger rival Telekom Malaysia Bhd is expected to launch its high-speed broadband services sometime next month.

"There's always room for an alternative player. I am pretty sure that our service can be differentiated from other service providers. We are an extremely focused bunch of service provider.

"We want to offer up to 50Mbps because we can. We are not talking about best effort speeds, it's real speed that's achievable," Afzal added.

Although the company's current broadband customer base is in the range of thousands, Afzal remains unfazed as the company has tens of thousands of existing active voice customers.