PETALING JAYA: About 120,000 folks living and working in Shah Alam’s trading centre are now able to connect to the Internet wirelessly from anywhere in the business district.
The Shah Alam city council (MBSA), with the help of Internet service provider Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd, developed the city’s Wireless Broadband Pioneer Project.
Jaring provides web access to the business district through the infrastructure and contributes its know-how on improving the network.
“We are pleased to provide our experience to the Selangor State Government for the design and installation of this new wireless network,” said Dr Mohamed Awang Lah, Jaring’s chief executive.
Shah Alam folk enjoy connection speeds of up to 384Kbps (kilobits per second) within an area of 112 sq miles, which include places like Taman Tasik Shah Alam, the SACC Mall and the MBSA building.
The service is free until about the end of August, after which a fee will be charged. Both MBSA and Jaring declined to say at this time how much the fee would be.
“We will be working closely with the State Government to ensure the users have a good and reliable service,” a Jaring spokesman told In.Tech last week.
Both parties also declined to say if and when the connection speed would be increased; the Jaring spokesman said any decision to upgrade the network would be in the hands of the State Government.
Many Shah Alam city dwellers welcome the wireless Internet service and say that it is a good move. However, they hope the connection speed can be increased to at least 1Mbps (megabit per second).
“You can’t do much with speeds that max out at 384Kbps. It would have been better if the network coukd offer at least 1Mbps,” said Madi Ahmad, a 27-year-old fast food restaurant manager.
He said Internet connection speeds at some premium cafes and fast food restaurants are already providing their customers with 1Mbps.
“With 384Kbps, I can send e-mail messages and chat online, but I can’t surf to websites like YouTube or make video calls,” said Madi.
Cheah Sy Jin, an 18-year-old student, agrees with Madi that the connection speed needs to be much faster. “I don’t think that with such speeds I can get any research done on the Internet,” he said.
An analyst with a marketing intelligence company, who requested anonymity, said MBSA and Jaring may have opted for the low connection speeds because they had to take into account the purchasing power of the majority of the city folk.
For those in Shah Alam who want 1Mbps, there is already Telekom Malaysia’s streamyx package (RM88 per month for a wired Internet connection), he said.
Also, Jaring already offers its own 384Kbps wireless Internet service, priced at RM40 a month, to home users in the country.
There are plans to expand the wireless service to other parts of Shah Alam and later, to elsewhere in Selangor. Expansion work for Shah Alam is scheduled to begin next month.
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