The world is going towards Gigabit broadband, when will we have such speed at such price?

Japan KDDI is offering the Hikari One Home Gigabit broadband at the price of ¥5460 (RM198) a month using the Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) technology.

In Hong Kong, Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited (HKBN) is offering Gigabit broadband at the price of US$27 per month.

South Korea is also among the countries with the fastest broadband service, and the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is currently working on plans to make Gigabit broadband available by the end of 2012 with FTTH.

Singapore is working on their Next Generation National Broadband Network, and OpenNet is going to offer Gigabit broadband at the price of S$15 per month per residential fibre connection.

With Gigabit broadband, watching High Definition IPTV is not a big deal, not to mention having very clear IP-phone service or excellent video conferencing quality.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia, the so-called high speed broadband UniFi offered by TM is only up to 20Mbps (50 times slower than Gigabit network), priced at RM249 per month, and currently only available in very limited areas only.

I think Gigabit broadband is a crucial infrastructure, and should be led and subsidized by the government instead of leaving it to the commercial company such as TM. Providing Gigabit FTTH at a low cost is a strategic move to boost broadband penetration in the country, which is also an important factor to retain and attract foreign investment to the country. The effect to the national economy is multifold, despite TM might not be willing to implement it because they'll lost money in the short term.

So, the government has to take the lead, and pump in money to make it happen. Instead of spending money on white elephant projects, why don't spend the money on crucial infrastructure project like Gigabit broadband?