Don’t take eye off broadband quality, Govt urged

PETALING JAYA: Many people welcome the decision to grant tax relief for those who subscribe to broadband Internet, but they also want the Government to keep pressuring the service providers to improve the quality of service.

Most of the people contacted by The Star said the RM500 tax relief incentive is bound to help the country boost its broadband penetration rate. But they fear that the service may suffer with the sudden influx of more subscribers.

As it is now, they said, they pay for a certain speed but usually have to put up with substandard connections that are deemed the “best effort” of the service providers.

“I love it that the Government is going to subsidise my broadband service,” said a housewife who asked to be identified only as Adelina. “But if the quality of my Internet speed is going to stay the same as now, I think the Government won’t be getting its money’s worth.” “It would be a waste of public funds,” she added.

Belinda, a media relations executive who also wanted anonymity, believes the Government should be spending that money on getting the service providers to improve broadband speeds in the country.

“If the broadband quality goes up tremendously, the people will be flocking to subscribe to the service,” she said. “There would then be no need for a carrot like the proferred tax relief.

She said not many people would turn down the incentive but that won’t be much of a consolation if they have to suffer erractic or slower than expected Internet connections.

Actor Fish Fazil hopes the increase in broadband service subscribers that the tax relief incentive brings, will be enough to encourage the service providers to improve their infrastructures.

Broadband is becoming an essential utility now, like electricty and water, and its quality must be just as good as those.

He is hoping for broadband services that are on par with those in the other countries which are leading the world in that respect.

“Unfortunately, broadband here today is more like narrowband,” he laughed. “Come on everyone, we can do this.”

The tax relief incentive would be implemented next year and would last till 2012.

Broadband penetration in Malaysian households is 26%, compared to 88% in Singapore and 95% in South Korea.