I've a friend who's quite knowledgeable about this sort of technological things and he expresses some doubts about the viability of this free WiFi project in Penang. This is what he wrote to me:
"Its more like providing free access in a few hot spots rather than state-wide WiMax. With the business model based on advertising on the home page of your first log in, I'm rather skeptical that they can generate enough revenue to make the project really take off. A vast number of municipal WiFi projects have failed around the world because there is no good business model for it.The next six to 12 months should be interesting to see whether my friend will be proven wrong. I can only hope that he is not right!
"Malaysia will be particularly difficult because most of the good content is overseas and thus the "Free WiFi" ISP will either need to have its own overseas bandwidth or be at the mercy of Terrorkom to provide overseas bandwidth."
Keep your ears this week. More to come on WIMAX
ReplyDeleteEven if your friend is right, what is wrong to even try than not to even try? The previous administration was too concerned about other things and yet today we have skeptics. I guess i respect your friend's comments but to better try than not to is something I have to give credit to this new government. They may be young but at least they tried. BN tried anything? Did anyone remember Penangnet? Was that ever tried ???????
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