Before we go any further, we would like to congratulate The Communications and Multimedia Ministry’s for their successful push to provide more affordable fixed line broadband prices through their Mandatory Standard on Access Pricing (MSAP) initiative.
As we have seen over the last few weeks, the rakyat are now blessed with a significant reduction in broadband prices, and in most cases higher internet access speeds as well. 1Gbps internet is no longer a luxury service that we need to look south at our neighbours with envy anymore.
Unless you’re one of the one million or so Streamyx user that is. While the post MSAP pricing offers connection speeds from 30Mbps to 100Mbps between RM79 to RM99 a month, Streamyx users are still having to fork out between RM110 to RM160 a month for a measly 1Mbps to 8Mbps connection.
Now, its quite obvious Streamyx users are not the ones insisting on sticking with a lower speed more expensive plan, instead of jumping over to newer Unifi packages. The issue is the bulk of these users are not given any alternatives as Streamyx is the only option made available to them – even after multiple promises by TM to upgrade the infrastructures at their respective locations.
Based on TM’s corporate report, as of Q12017, they have over 1.3 million Streamyx customers as opposed to 979,000 Unifi customers. While the transition of customers from Streamyx to Unifi is quite visible, Streamyx users still form a strong majority of TM’s customer base, and for them to be ignored in the MSAP is definitely not fair – especially when they do not have any alternatives.
The question that needs to be answered here is why are Streamyx customers, with presumably the largest customer base in the country been conveniently left out from the MSAP, and are being forced to pay exorbitant prices for an inferior and less attractive product? While an infrastructure upgrade will obviously take time, Streamyx customers are due a price adjustment to comply with the requirements of the MSAP.
