Brunei Internet users cannot be taken for a ride

DID you know that as of February 8 you can subscribe to the new E-Speed Time plan for as low as $29.90, available to only residential users? From the amount of chatter on Brunei's online forums, it does seem the package has caught everyone's attention. Unfortunately Telbru's attempt at expanding its list of services as part of its corporatisation mandate seems to have garnered more of a reputation amongst the public as bad business planning and poor pricing than anything else. There are three packages under the E-Speed Time plans and the cheapest of the bunch at $29.90 gives you a 512 kbps download speed, with a measly 100 minutes per month. That, by the way, works out to be three minutes and 17 seconds of daily usage for your $29.90. Not a surprise then most existing E-Speed subscribers and potential users have been less than gracious in their assessment of the latest attempt by E-Speed to win new subscribers.

While credit must be given to Telbru for even coming up with a new and alternative plan to its existing offerings — bearing in mind they don't need to because they are a monopoly with no competitors in sight to challenge their market share — Telbru should have taken the time to understand the consumer market in Brunei for broadband services in order to provide truly value adding services to our community. If they have done so, they would have realised that the profile for a typical broadband user in Brunei is usually someone who spends countless hours online, never logging off from broadband services for his/her social networking, media related activities such as online video gaming, videos and music downloads. The E-Speed Time plans profile simply does not match Bruneian surfing habits. So if the new package is designed to target existing residential broadband users, the plan may eventually conclude as an utter failure because residential broadband users are not going to want to be shortchanged on their time. If Telbru is targeting the market segment made up of light, casual users who simply check their emails and log off immediately and therefore would not want to pay $98.00 a month on the standard value surf package, it will still have the issue of ensuring that its services are dependable. A time sensitive package must ensure an uninterrupted stable connection with no sudden dropouts in connection as any instability in connection is going to cost the consumer an additional $0.05 per minute for Telbru's already less than perfect broadband infrastructure. Telbru's marketing department has also done a fairly poor job at ensuring the right marketing message attached to these plans. A simple advisory on each of the E-Speed Time plan to inform potential subscribers on the benefits of each package and suitability based on their surfing habits would have helped consumers to decide whether the plans were designed for them in the first place. Importantly, any information provided by Telbru would have stopped hundreds of potential and existing broadband users launching a barrage of scathing criticism at the new plans and further undermining Telbru's already questionable quality for broadband services.

The good news is that the wheels of privatisation are certainly at work at Telbru with consumers ultimately gaining from a greater range of services to choose from. However, while choices for consumers may seemingly increase, Bruneian consumers are still savvy enough to determine whether true value has been created in the market for them, or that someone has pulled a fast one on them. Judging by the public's response so far, one may be inclined to think that it is the latter.The Brunei Times