Even at the MyBroadband Forum, Energy, Water and Communications Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik has dissed out on “best efforts” and has continually pressured service providers to deliver better and faster services.

On a local wireless Internet-telco’s services, the “best effort” fineprint clause rears its ugly head yet again. The service delivers anything from a paltry 128 megabits per second (Mbps) on enhanced data rates for global evolution (EDGE) to universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) speeds within the so-called confirmed coverage areas.

Subscribers to the 3.6 (Mbps) package at RM98 are faced with fluctuating and inconsistent data speeds; far away from the 3.6Mbps “almost promised”, thanks to the “best effort” clause. The dream is what’s been promised and do we dare to dream of better services like that enjoyed in other parts of the world?

At the recent GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and chief exec of Ericsson made a comparison in his keynote address of how his country stacks up in the high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) deployment.

In Sweden and the UK, the three networks respectively provides data services up to 7.2Mbps for US$30 (RM105) per month for unlimited access and 3.6Mbps for US$20 with a one-gigabyte (GB) per month cap.

In Malaysia, Maxis delivers 3.6Mbps for US$32 with a 3GB per month cap. These were labelled as being “pricing models in the early phase”. Malaysians are paying more obviously and still not getting the less they’ve been “almost promised”.

Is it because there isn’t enough volume to drive prices further down? Flat rate is the way to go to make it a good reason for people to jump onto the wireless broadband bandwagon. With more people on board, it will help create the critical mass required to drive prices even lower.

Maybe then we can have better services and data speeds; as opposed to having lesser speeds when more join the bandwagon. Thus, consumer growth has to be in the roadmap as well.

As Svanberg mentioned, mobile broadband closes the digital divide as it contributes to prosperity helping growth, quality of life and democracy.

Svanberg cites examples like the Millennium villages in Africa where mobile Internet is used for healthcare, education and business and Gramjyoti in India is providing rural areas with mobile Internet services.

The conclusion is flat rates and transparent pricing are in.