Malaysia: Snapshot of the Internet around 1990

by Sureswaran Ramadass and Azlan Osman

2012.7.6/7.11/9.30/10.27

Malaysia began its Internet services in 1987 with MIMOS (Malaysian Institutes of Microelectronics Systems) as the sole provider. MIMOS was first established in 1985 to provide critical infrastructure for the advancement of the local electronics industry. The first Internet service in Malaysia, known as the Rangkaian Komputer Malaysia (RangKoM), connects all the universities in Malaysia to MIMOS to enable researchers from the universities to communicate with each other. The main applications used at that time were e-mails and electronic forums (such as Usenet) and because the main users were mainly academicians and researchers, the information being exchanged were mostly academic related. The conception of RangKoM allowed MIMOS and the universities to create the local talent pool in computer networks which at that time was a very new subject area in Malaysia.

In 1992, the Joint Advanced Research Integrated Network (JARING) was conceived by MIMOS as part of the 6^th Malaysia Plan to provide Internet services to the nation. JARING was connected to many research and academic institutions, including several government and private agencies. It’s main objective is to support the education, research and commercialization activities in Malaysia. JARING also had a gateway to the international Internet. A leased line to the United States with the speed of 64kbps was introduced on November 1992.

JARING eventually became the first Internet Service Provider for the Malaysian public. JARING was opened for public connectivity using dial-up modems. JARING’s usage became more popular as a result of the introduction of Gopher and the World Wide Web (WWW). The usage of these two applications eventually resulted in the congestion of JARING’s backbone which at that time operated at 64kbps. The backbone was eventually upgraded in 1994 to 1.5Mbps to cope with the dramatic increase in data transmission within JARING. Later that year, JARING was accessible throughout the nation where its nodes were placed in 16 major cities in Malaysia including Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Bangi, Melaka, Seri Gading, Johor Bahru, Ipoh, Pulau Pinang, Alor Setar, Kuantan, Kota Bahru, Kuala Terengganu, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. This effort enabled even more users to access JARING/Internet services using fixed-line telephones.

More than 27 organisations and government agencies had become JARING’s members with more than 200 users in early 1992. JARING members are categorised as students, individuals and organisations. Individuals and students are able to access the Internet only via dial-up while organisations are able to access either using dial-up or leased lines. By 1994, JARING members had increased to 254 organisations and nearly 1,700 individual members.

In 1995, JARING upgraded its links to the nodes in Pulau Pinang and Johor Bahru from 64kbps to 2.48Mbps. At the end of 1995, more than 1,000 dial-up lines had been provided for users and 40 more nodes were created in 1996 in addition to the 21 existing nodes.

The year 1995 also saw the second link to the international Internet. A dedicated 2.048Mbps (E1) link worked in parallel with the existing 1.536Mpbs (T1) link. The E1 link together with the T1 link was able to service the increasing number of users at that time. Within 1995, the steady increase of Internet users was observed at the average rate of 22% each month. With the 7^th Malaysia Plan, the government executed the Nation Information Superstructure that utilised JARING as the infrastructure backbone.

To enable more access to the public, JARING signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with several companies to form the JARING Access Service Provider (JASP) program that allowed the public to get private support services for accessing the Internet.

JARING also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Asia Internet Holding (AIH) from Japan to boost its Internet services among local and Asia Pacific users. The network, known as the JARING A-Bone, allowed faster Internet access to connect to websites within Asian countries that were also connected to the A-Bone network. By May 1997, JARING offered Internet connectivity to more than 150 countries.

In June 1997, JARING made history with the installation of an international link of 45Mbps that was also the first of its kind in the region (beside Japan). The installation of this link was also in conjunction with the largest Internet conference in Asia, INET 97. By the end of 1997, the number of JARING’s members had increased to more than 100,000 members with an estimate of more than 300,000 users.

The creation and growth of JARING laid the path to a new road for the telecommunications industry that eventually became a catalyst for many others to follow suit to provide Internet access to the people of Malaysia. The privatisation of JARING eventually took place. Today, JARING still stands as one of the main Internet Service Providers in the country despite facing stiff competition.

As the Government of Malaysia saw the potential growth in the telecommunications industry, privatisation took centre stage and many new companies benefited from the privatisation plan, and mobile communication services went on to become more accessible and affordable for all consumers alike. In 1986, the Telecommunications Department of Malaya was merged with the Telecommunications Department of Sabah and Sarawak to form the Telecommunications Department of Malaysia, to oversee the telecommunications need of the nation. It was eventually privatised in 1987 and was known as Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM). It went on to be listed in Malaysia’s Stock Exchange, Bursa Malaysia, in 1990. Until the year 2000, Telekom Malaysia had the largest market share of fixed lines accumulating up to 96.7%. Subsequent growth led to a separation of its mobile and fixed services in 2008, allowing the company to focus more on its core businesses of Internet and multimedia, data and fixed-line services [TM 2010].

The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) was introduced by Telekom Malaysia in 1993, followed by the introduction of its Corporate Information Superhighway (COINS), a fibre-optic backbone infrastructure based IP Network. TM COINS provides fast, scalable and efficient services including a high-capacity infrastructure able to support multimedia applications with speeds up to 10Mbps transmitting voice, data and images. TM Net was later established in 1996 by Telekom Malaysia as part of Malaysia National Broadband Plan to become the second ISP in Malaysia after JARING. It eventually became the largest ISP in the country. To strengthen its dominance as an ISP, the Streamyx broadband Internet service was launched in April 2001 with the speed of 384kbps. The introduction of Streamyx led them to become the most dominant ISP with coverage over the entire nation. Recently, TM Net launched its HSBB (High Speed Broad Band) services at selected locations providing high speed FTTH and FTTO. [Bernama 2009].

Privatisation in the mid-nineties saw Telekom Malaysia facing stiff competition in the industry, challenging its dominance over the telecommunications industry. Throughout the decade, many companies have sought licences in various services ranging from fixed line to Internet connection services. While there are many ISPs in Malaysia, Telekom Malaysia’s ownership of the nation’s last mile connections impedes competition to densely populated areas in major cities that eventually led to TM Net enjoying a virtual monopoly of the broadband market. Present day ISPs that offer DSL broadband services in Malaysia include Giga Broadband, JARING Flite Wired, Maxis Wired, PersiaSYS Ultraband, TIME Business DSL & Broadband and TM Broadband (Streamyx) & UniFi. Wireless broadband services area also offered by several companies including Airzed, AsiaSpace WIMAX, Redtone WIMAX, Axis Braodband, Izzi Broadband, Hotgate Technologies Inc, JARING Flite Wireless, Packet One and YTL Communications.