Jaring Merge with TMNet?

I first heard the news of Jaring merge with TMNet at the 2003 budget when my friend SMSed me when I was on my way to watch Identity (John Cusak, Ray Liota, Amanda Peet). I simply replied him, "Damn! MONOPOLY!!!" I just don't get it. Why is the government structuring back the market to monopolisitic after it introduced competition though oligopolistic market creation?

We thought the whole exercise of opening up ISP with issuance of licenses to TM Net, Maxis Net, Time Net; that ended JARING monopoly was to introduce competition for the benefit users with lower pricing, service efficiencies, more choices, and variety of content. It is okay if a few left the market, because the market has decided, but then their exit is another issue of not opening up the bandwidth for wholesale like what are being practised in some part of the world.

And it was then the Communication & Multimedia Commission (CMC) envisioned a fully competitive and converging of communications and multimedia market by 2010. But as this was announced, it just doesn't make any sense anymore. We are taking 100000 steps behind!

Refer to this slide presented by Tan Sri Nuraizah Abdul Hamid, the Chairman of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in conjunction with the APT Regulatory Forum, 15-17 May 2001, Phuket, Thailand. The presentation was entitled "A Regulator’s View on Market Performance"

It is ironic if CMC influence this decision. This morning, at breakfast, we tried to figure out some logic behind this:

a. Has TM Net been pressured on Universal Service Obligation to lower cost in order to provide
ubiquitous access so that the digital divide can be bridged?
b. That government has to now intervene in the acquisition of Telekom over Jaring, after talks failed
earlier this year.
c. Is TMNet desperately needing corporate clients base from Jaring? Jaring main revenue comes from
corporate.
d. Did the recent announcement on satellite broadband threaten Streamyx expansion plan?
e. Or, has Jaring gone bad, sour, and ineffiecient in the residential segment?

After all, this is not Belanjawan Rakyat!!!

Comments

[Fina]

done a full LJ entry about my opinion.

I think it's not about jaring's and tmnet's segmentations, and I tend to agree with Pak Adib.
And it's not about monopoly either.
I'm not sure what our CE and Chairman think, but with Celcom - TM Cell merger still in the bag -
I don't think they would want to have another wave of merger and bad reps.
And TMNet has not generated much from what was expected.
And Telekom's current situation not very encouraging.

The backhand is biting Telekom/Jaring to do it. And it hurts.

[Adib]

I am sad to note that Jaring has to merge with TMNet.Both are technically owned by
the government and they should complement one another and not working against each
other.IMHO, they should be individually developed into stronger ISP's with
congruent national objectives but different characters and cultures.

What I am afraid is that both will share each other weaknesses and riding on one
another strengths.

[Anon]

Maybe we should as the minister... heh

[Idlan]

Am literally scratching my head at the moment. How can regressing back into a monopoly be good for anyone except they themselves?

Perhaps there are some efficiency matters that they need to sort out, and maybe they are trying to achieve economies of scale or something (unlikely, but who know); but still that doesn't explain why other ISPs like Maxis.net are pulling the plug on their services.

At the end of it all, there may well be something good to come out of it all. But not before the people have to suffer, to some extent, first.

[KaZ]

Obviously, the proposal from telekom to acquire Jaring came from the Government. When the rakyat cry foul, the matter was silenced for a while.
"They" let the dust settle down before reverting to Plan B.
The PM then tabled the budget, announcing the merger.
Now it make sense right?

My next quetion is, who are "they"?