Streamyx fee halved, says TM chief

The research house also raised its target price on Telekom Malaysia Bhd

IPOH: The monthly subscription fee for Streamyx has been reduced by more than half for existing customers.

In announcing this, Telekom Malaysia (TM) chairman Rosli Man said existing customers would only need to pay RM69 monthly beginning September, while new users would pay RM89 for the 8Mbps package.

Rosli said TM took this measure to reduce the monthly fee while they upgraded broadband speeds across the board.

He said some 973,000 Unifi customers have been upgraded to higher speeds, while the remaining 934,000 Streamyx and Unifi users would get to enjoy further increases in speed gradually.

“TM will be addressing the issue via various technologies such as fibre, wireless and copper wires.

“The process will take between a year and one-and-a-half-years, and it is expected that 70% of the 934,000 customers will be able to enjoy Unifi services by the end of 2020,” he told a press conference during the launch of the two-day Kembara Digital Malaysia programme held at the Sultan Azlan Shah roundabout here yesterday.

The event was launched by state Comآ­muآ­nications and Multimedia committee chairman Hasnul Zulkarnain Munaim.

Also present at the launch was Communiآ­cations and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.

It was previously reported that Gobind had confirmed via Twitter that he would be meeting TM to discuss issues faced by Streamyx users.

He made the post after users reached out to him on Twitter.

TM is supposed to file a report detailing the solutions it will offer to Streamyx users who have been complaining that they are being charged too high for low speeds.

Streamyx uses an older, slower broadband technology called DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), which is a transmission technology that moves data over traditional copper telephone lines.

Unifi uses a faster technology over fibre optic cables, which transmit data at speeds far exceeding current DSL modems.

Rosli said TM is committed to resolving Streamyx issues and believed that the plan is the way forward to address not only the limitations of the copper-based broadband network but also to lay the foundation for a better Internet experience for existing and future customers.

“For some, 8Mbps is sufficiently fast, therefore the new monthly fee is now affordable,” he added.

In his speech earlier, Gobind said the focus on broadband services is not confined to the urban population alone.

He said efforts were made to ensure those in the suburbs also received such services, which has helped them to market their proآ­ducts and services through e-commerce iniآ­tiaآ­tives.

Citing the example of Perak, he said as of May, 174,000 broadband connections had been installed, but the subscription was only 49%.

“I hope more people will utilise the services provided,” said Gobind, who added a word of caution on the misuse of the Internet as it could spread falsehoods quickly, deliberately or otherwise.

“All parties must be more careful when disseminating or sharing news on social media,” he said.