By G. Sharmila
Today, the Penang state government announced that Penangites will now have access to 1Mbps WiFi speeds for free. Tiger wonders when Kuala Lumpur will progress to this level and offers a few ideas for Putrajaya to do this in the capital city.
A fortnight ago, Tiger wrote about making broadband a basic right.
Tiger doesn’t think this request is unreasonable, given that Malaysia is on the path to becoming a developed nation. Which is why she was happy to read that Penangites will now get access to 1 megabit per second (Mbps) WiFi speeds from 512 kilobits per second (kbps) previously.
The best part is, they’ll continue getting WiFi access for free.
Lim Guan Eng
The move by the Penang state government is to boost broadband penetration in the state, Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng was quoted saying by media reports.
Part of the Wireless@Penang initiative introduced in 2009, the Penang Free WiFi service now has 1,550 hotspots located in all the state’s 40 constituencies. (And yes, it includes the 10 constituencies that Barisan Nasional won in 2013 elections).
Although 1Mbps doesn’t meet the latest international definition of “broadband”, Tiger thinks that Penang is on the right track by providing free Internet access to as many Penangites as it can.
She only wishes that Putrajaya would do the same, by providing free WiFi to all Kuala Lumpur residents.
One may argue that Wireless@KL does provide free WiFi service (it had 1,500 hotspots in 700 locations around KL as of 2011), however the WiFi is only free for two years, after which one has to pay to use the service.
Also, the last-known speeds for the service were at 512kbps despite being launched in 2008.
With mobile Internet packages being relatively affordable to mobile users now, using the Wireless@KL service seems pointless, especially when you compare the spotty Internet connectivity that WiFi is to the high speed, always-on connectivity your mobile provider can offer you.
The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has been strangely silent on the progress of Wireless@KL since 2011.
A search on the Internet found that as of June 2011, there were over 380,000 registered users of the WiFi service. One wonders how many of those users continued using the service after the two-year free period was up. In contrast, Wireless@Penang has close to 600,000 registered users to date.
So did Wireless@KL fail, after it was so grandly touted as the next big thing for KL?
Tiger would say so, but not in a negative way, no.
She thinks that Putrajaya could learn a thing or two from Guan Eng when it comes to investing in the people. With a little creativity, this “failure” can be given a new lease of life, she thinks.
The first thing that Putrajaya needs to do is to stop treating the Internet as an expense, but rather as an investment in the betterment of the people.
One way to do this is of course to “upgrade” Wireless@KL in the eyes of the people by offering the WiFi service for free, permanently.
The second thing that needs to be done is to set up more WiFi hotspots around KL.
A city that is expected to have a population of 2.2 million by 2020 (2013: 1.72 million) needs stable, reliable, and affordable Internet access and that can only happen if the number of hotspots deployed are progressively increased to support the demand of the population.
Tiger hopes that this new incarnation of Wireless@KL will become as wildly successful as Wireless@Penang has been.
In fact, she thinks Putrajaya should look beyond Malaysian shores to our neighbour Singapore, whose countrywide initiative Wireless@Singapore now provides wireless broadband speeds of up to 2Mbps.
Clearly, Singapore is a developed nation with a much more sophisticated broadband infrastructure and therefore things in Malaysia can’t change overnight.
However, it is something for Malaysia to aspire to and it can start by providing free Internet access with decent speeds in public places for all residents of KL.
The idea is for Putrajaya and DBKL to start somewhere with reviving Wireless@KL. After all, Ralph Waldo Emerson said “nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”.
It is time that the authorities showed some for the betterment of the people.
GRRRRR!!!
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