NO to YES! GSMA sends letter of protest to Malaysian Government on 700MHz allocation
YTL's recent launch of its telecommunications arm raised all sorts of interest.
But it was the one that sent a letter of protest to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission that raised the most eyebrows, not the low rates and high speeds that YES talked about prior to their launch.
The 700Mhz spectrum that is seen as prime sprectrum for the mobile braodband industry is the heart of the matter. YTL was given 80mhz of this frequency in which it had made announcements that it would broadcast media content in partnership with an American company, Sezmi, an 'all-in-one TV' content provider.
It is estimated that increased Internet adoption resulting from widespread Mobile Broadband deployment would create more than 44,000 new jobs by 2020, with many in rural areas. This was the message from The Boston Consulting group after conducting a detailed study on the Socio-economic impact of Mobile Broadband on the 700MHz spectrum deployed in Asia Pacific.
"Reaping the rewards that Mobile Broadband is proven to provide is heavily dependent on governments and their regulators harmonising spectrum for mobile and implementing supportive policy," concluded Tom Phillips, Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer, GSMA. "Not only will governments lose out on the considerable economic opportunity, but failure to harmonise spectrum in the 700 MHz band will also have a huge impact on millions of people, such as higher prices, limited access to critical services and significantly reduced Internet connectivity – especially in rural areas where it's needed most."
FAILURE TO HARMONISE SPECTRUM WITHIN THE REGION IN MALAYSIA
The study by BCG further states that there aill be at least a 10% increase in 'incremental benefits' for manufacturing industry as well as services but will yield nothing is the spectrum is used for broadcasting. Why? Simply because,the spectrum if used for broadcasting will benefit the broadcaster rather than the user.
And here lies the crux of the matter.
What has the Minister of Information, Communication and Mulitimedia done with the allocation of the spectrum?
Do Malaysian's understand enough of what Spectrum allocation and bandwidth means?
If one was to gauge the response of the industry, basically, the MCMC, under the direction of the Minister has proceeded with something that the Industry has plans for. If in the US when the FCC came under for of its allocation, Malaysia has pretty much done the same.
One observer simply put it 'Our Minister is simply an analog minister in a digital ministry'!
The spectrum allocation is just simply another faux pas in industry practise, something the Minister has consistently shown he is capable of.
Another? Giving away netbooks from funds that are meant for Infrastructure development to students that do not even have access to electricity to begin with!
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Rahsiah 1Malaysia: Lina Khir Johari
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