People in the United States basically invented the Internet. So U.S. connections must be the fastest and cheapest in the world, right?

Not so much.

Broadband Internet speeds in the United States are only about one-fourth as fast as those in South Korea, the world leader, according to the Internet monitoring firm Akamai.

And, as if to add insult to injury, U.S. Internet connections are more expensive than those in South Korea, too.

The rest of the article over here

Today, we are to find what Internet and e-commerce infrastructure in such Southeast Asian country as Malaysia is currently like. The country is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also participating in many international organizations such as the United Nations.

As a former British colony, Malaysia is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malaysia also ranks among the Developing 8 Countries. Malaysia is also one of the region’s top education and healthcare destinations. Malaysia is recognized as a newly industrialized country with GDP per capita equaled $8,141 in 2008 ranking it no. 65 globally. Malaysia is one of the key “Asian Tigers” as a consequence of its energetic efforts to transform itself into an information age nation.

Malaysia’s telecommunications and broadband network is advanced relatively compared to other countries in South-east Asia. Thus, according to the worldstats.com data related to the second quarter of 2008 Malaysia accounted 16,900,000 Internet subscribers occupying the ninth position far behind China with 338,000,000 users taking the first place, Japan with 94,000,000 and India with 81,000,000 taking second and third places, respectively. Malaysia takes just 2,4% of Asian broadband market share.

As for the Internet penetration, 356.8 % growth is seen for the period of 2000-2009. Thereby, for instance, in 2000 it was accounted 3,700,000 subscribes, or just 15% of the population. In 2005 the amount of subscribers doubled and reached 26,500,699, 37.9 %. Currently, over 60% of Malaysians can use Internet connection actively, with almost 17 million subscribers accounted. Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication targeted 50% household penetration by 2010.

There is an increasing awareness of ICT progress in Malaysia. The ICT development plays an essential role in the government’s plans for the economy. The government has targeting to position Malaysia as a regional and global ICT and multimedia hub, by providing tax breaks to attract multinational corporations and increase the companies’ competitiveness through the development of the Multimedia Supercorridor (MSC) near Kuala Lumpur, the country’s capital. As the result, a large number of high tech companies from around the world have started setting up in Malaysia.

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Remember the Malaysian made IPTV service called Yoonic TV? It has been merge into Hypp.TV.

The service is now only for Streamyx users and it is priced at RM9.90 per month.

There are over 31 live channels currently and more channels will be added soon. There also Video-On-Demands that includes episod from popular animated series Upin and Apin.

Some of the live channels are Bloomberg TV, Channel 99 Debar, Channels News Asia, Al-Jazeera, Zee Music, WOW TV, Barclays Premier League, Luxe TV, WWE, Fashion TV and more.

Minimum requirement for Hypp.TV inlcude:

• .Net Framework 2.0 and above
• Latest Adobe Flash Player
• Windows Media Player 9 or above
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and above

The service is recommended on Streamyx with speed of 1Mbps and above.

More infor visit www.hypp.tv

The British government outlined plans on Thursday to bring broadband Internet service to every home in Britain by 2012, and proposed ways to support the music industry and other media businesses by cracking down on online piracy.

The communications minister, Stephen Carter, is eager for the media, telecommunications and technology sectors to pick up part of the slack as other parts of the British economy, including financial services, decline. By 2012, the government said in a report, 20 percent of all commerce in Britain will occur online.

“There is no sector, with the possible exception of energy, that the rest of the economy depends upon more than this one,” Mr. Carter told reporters in London.

The government wants to make broadband a universal service like television, using fixed-line and wireless technologies. About 60 percent of British households currently have broadband.

The report makes frequent reference to President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, which includes billions of dollars for expanding access to broadband. But the British report emphasizes the role of the private sector, calling for steps to remove barriers to further investments.

Matthew Howett, an analyst at Ovum, a telecommunications consulting firm, criticized the report for lacking details on how its goals might be achieved.

“The government must ensure that ‘Digital Britain’ doesn’t become merely a series of reviews, reports and consultations,” Mr. Howett said.

To try to curb unauthorized file-sharing, which the music industry blames for its woes, the report recommends requiring Internet service providers to send warning letters to persistent pirates.

Some British Internet providers have already sent such letters under a voluntary agreement. Under the proposal outlined Thursday, they would be required by law to do so. Internet providers would also be required to turn over personal details of repeat offenders to rights holders, like music companies, so that the offenders could be sued.

The music industry, however, is increasingly reluctant to pursue file-sharers through the courts, fearing a backlash from listeners. The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major record companies, moved to end a multiyear legal campaign against file-sharers, for example.

“We do not believe that the form of intervention proposed by today’s report — suing consumers — is the best way forward,” said Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of UK Music, which represents the British music industry.

Instead, the music industry in Britain has been pushing for Internet service providers to take on more of the burden of curbing piracy. Record companies want service providers to cut off service to persistent copyright infringers, something that Eircom, which provides Internet access in Ireland, said Thursday that it had agreed to do.

In France, legislation that would require service providers to disconnect pirates is working its way through Parliament.

The British report also proposes the creation of a “rights agency,” financed by a tax on broadband providers and content owners, to work on ways to protect copyrighted material.

“It may be that such an independent, objective body may be better able to surmount the mutual tension between rights holders, publishers, search engines and other content aggregators, the I.S.P.’s and the underlying communications network operators and instead broker technical solutions that can command widespread adoption and support,” the report said.

The recommendations are preliminary; they are open to comment, and the government intends to make final proposals in June.-Ny Times

Convergence is one of the greatest wonders of modern life. At its simplest, it means the transition from an analogue world to a digital one. With convergence, all it takes is a click of a mouse and information will be transmitted over the converged digital platform.

The potential and opportunities of convergence is limitless. Thanks to convergence, we can digitise almost everything including text, sound, speech, film, graphics, animation and music. In this format, information can be then be transmitted over the converged digital platform.

As the country’s leading telecommunications provider, Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has always been at the forefront of the digital revolution.

From a history in providing merely voice services, TM embarked on its first dial-up Internet service in 1996. TM then made its foray into broadband in 2001 with the introduction of its signature brand, Streamyx; which became an instant hit.

Broadband has transformed and revolutionised the lifestyle of Malaysians.

From then on, TM never looked back. In 2003, TM deployed its first wireless broadband Internet access service using Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology, aptly called Streamyx Zones (formerly Streamyx Hotspot).

TM has since expanded its WiFi network to more than1,200 locations nationwide making it the country’s largest and most established wireless access network. For increased mobility and customer convenience, the service was also converged with its then mobile unit, Celcom with the introduction of its Mobile Wifi service in November 2004.

With the increased usage of broadband and the need to have faster access to data and information, TM in 2004, took another step forward by introducing the country’s first 1.0Mbps broadband package. This is further improved to 2.0Mbps in 2006 and then 4.0Mbps in 2007.

Currently, TM has the largest and widest fixed telecommunications infrastructure network in the country with 1,018 exchanges broadband- enabled, making the service readily available for more consumers. The company now serves 1.5 million broadband customers nationwide.

With the availability of broadband access highways, TM has also debuted on its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service trials in Penang.

As the leading broadband company, TM constantly look for ways to enrich its customers’ experience through converging broadband connectivity, content and communications, so that it serves as a catalyst towards a converged lifestyle for Malaysians.

Hence, in April 2006, TM introduced its first triple-play package by offering its subscribers not just the benefit of fast broadband connection but the chance to enjoy free or discounted calls via its voice over broadband service (VOIP) as well as explore a variety of broadband content from Bluehyppo.com and Netmyne.com.

TM’s foray into the content space is offered mainly through its lifestyle portal www.bluehyppo.com which offers a variety of different online channels and services, covering areas such as music, movies, education (B-Smart), online newspapers (e-browse) and social networking, and has more than 1.3 million registered members.

Netmyne.com is a business portal that serves the informational and communication needs in the current highly competitive business environment.

This portal acts as a specialised online destination for TM’s business and application-centric services and will offer all the resources, information and business solution to grow and build a business from a single point of reference.

TM also ventured into managed application, communications and hosting services which include customer relationship management, e- health, sales force automation, enterprise resource management, conferencing and collaboration, messaging, and fixed-mobile convergence services. TM also provides managed hosting services via its Information Security Management System standards BS7799 certified data centres which allow companies to co-locate their servers in a controlled environment.

In May 2007, TM debuted its new METRO.e service for businesses. It offers high-speed connectivity access from 4.0Mbps to 1Gbps, making it a compelling alternative for businesses that need robust secure high-speed connectivity.

The increasing demand for converged services and its provisioning through vehicles such as high-speed broadband (HSBB) makes it imperative for telcos such as TM to move into transforming its legacy networks into next generation network (NGN) where the ability to deliver converged services is made possible by a single multipurpose IP-based network.

Today, HSBB is almost upon us. The era of teleworking, digital homes and telehealth is just around the corner for Malaysians. HSBB is a premium broadband service with speeds of 10Mbps to 100Mbps for residential customers and up to 1Gbps for businesses delivered via fibre optic infrastructure.

Its benefits are manifold. HSBB will be a key national infrastructure initiative with huge economic and social impact. Besides contributing to economic growth, it will enhance the nation’s competitiveness in the region; help attract foreign direct investment as well as accelerate the nation’s ICT and high-tech aspirations and agenda through an enhanced knowledge capital workforce.

HSBB will also act as a catalyst to spur the development of the local content and application ecosystem by enhancing consumer experience and developer productivity.

It will attract international content providers to relocate their operations to Malaysia, thus helping the country to save costs in the long run for consumers and businesses. HSBB will enable the next phase of productivity and knowledge-based growth of our enterprises through the availability of new applications i.e. managed services and converged solutions; real-time integration with business partners; ability to tap into the global virtual markets and more flexibility.

More importantly, consumers will be able to enjoy an exciting lifestyle with a variety of services such as high-speed Internet access, file sharing, e-commerce, e-government, e-learning, infotainment, virtual shopping, distance education, video- conferencing, web browsing, IPTV and high resolution video on demand.

HSBB will also make teleworking a realistic choice as transfer of data can be carried out efficiently and the use of real-time interactive applications such as video conferencing will become a muchused tool.

With digital convergence brought about by HSBB, businesses will be able to improve their efficiency through new applications in managed services in accounting, supply chain or customer relationship management and can enjoy better integration with business partners worldwide.

From a social perspective, HSBB will spur the development of an IT-savvy society, with knowledge capital development that will help in bridging the digital divide.

As one of the key players among the licensees, TM is happy to play its role in contributing towards meeting the government’s national aspirations to achieve 50 per cent household broadband penetration targets by 2010. As a convergence facilitator, TM is in the driver’s seat. -NST

Asian countries continue to surpass Europe and North America in the adoption of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, according to a new global ranking study by the FTTH Councils of Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.

South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan, now occupy the top four positions in the FTTH Council Global Ranking, with Asia accounting for more than 27 million of the world’s estimated 32 million FTTH connections.

Updated twice a year, the ranking tracks the level of FTTH market penetration in economies where more than 1 percent of households are connected to high-speed fiber networks. In total, 14 countries met this threshold, according to the rankings, which was previously updated early this year.

Speaking at the FTTH Council’s Asia-Pacific annual conference here Wednesday, Colin Goodwin, director of FTTH Council Asia-Pacific, said FTTH is today’s mainstream fixed access technology for high-speed broadband delivery.

“We have passed the tipping point for FTTH technology,” Goodwin said. “There is no doubt that Asia leads the world in high-speed broadband using FTTH as the fixed access technology of choice.”

Of the four top countries, South Korea now has nearly 37 percent of its household connected to fiber, followed by Hong Kong at 27 percent, Japan at 24 percent and Taiwan at 7.7 percent.

Scandinavian countries–Sweden, Norway, Slovenia, Iceland and Denmark–occupied the fifth through ninth spots, while the United States came in at 10th. Singapore rounded up the list at 14th position, with just over 1 percent of its households connected via FTTH.

According to Lynn Hutcheson, vice president of communication components for research consultancy Ovum, FTTH is ramping up in Asia primarily due to two factors.

“First, operators want to future-proof their networks,” Hutcheson told ZDNet Asia on the sidelines of the FTTH conference. “Many operators want to ensure they have the right networks today to carry their high-speed broadband traffic, as they do not want to [only] put in a new network five years from now.”

However, the Ovum analyst noted, the most significant push in the proliferation of FTTH is Asia’s demand for video.

“Video is the biggest driver in terms of FTTH,” he said. “Today, there is a growing demand for HDTV (high definition TV) channels, and other high-speed interactive services such as games and real-time services on the Internet.”

Hutcheson added that the cost of fiber is falling due to economies of scale, and this is helping drive FTTH deployments worldwide. However, he noted, installation costs remain high due to labor cost. -ZDNet