End of the gravy train

By:Dinesh Nair

This article first appeared over at our affiliates site Alphaque.com. The original piece can be found here

The collective wail is heard loudly. A whole bunch of maxis.net.my ISP customers have all just found out that their ride on the free gravy train ends on midnight September 30, 2001. This is when Maxis will start charging for erstwhile free internet access. Looks like the bean counters just realised that they need to justify the RM100 million (or so Maxis claims) spent on Internet infrastructure. Suddenly that free cooldude@maxis.net.my email addy is going to cost RM30 a month. Oops, how do you change email addresses now that a gazillion people are emailing you porn and warez to that address ? What about SMBs who've relied on free access to drive their internet ambitions ?

All down the tubes if you don't pony up the access fees. Suddenly, paying 1 sen a minute to Jaring or TMNet sounds a whole lot better. Maxis' sudden influx of ISP users was due to their free surf offer. Malaysians always enjoy a free ride and here was an opportunity to capitalize on Maxis' generosity. Spurning any loyalty to the PPS (pay per surf) ISPs, they switched faster than you could say Char Kuay Teow. Trying to get a free ride, they are now learning what a whole bunch of Internet dot coms have figured out. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch on the Internet. Sooner or later you are going to find yourself held by the short and curlies and it is time to payback in droves.

Tough titties if you have come to rely on the maxis.net.my email address for Internet communication. Tough titties if you suddenly found Jaring and TMNet cheaper to use and need to inform your contacts that your address has changed. Better get hopping, you have got about a month and a half left. Go back with your tail between your legs to either one of these two ISPs and beg to be let in. It would teach you a thing or two about customer loyalty.

But is customer loyalty rewarded in Malaysia ? I would say NOT. Malaysian businesses have yet realized how important an acquired and loyal customer is, and seem to be putting all their efforts and funds into securing new customers. They shovel free gifts in the form of mobile handsets, holidays and the like to potential new signups but forget that this act pisses of the loyal customer who is made to feel unimportant. Well, this back and forth swing of customer loyalty will continue as long as customer retention is not on the horizon of our service economy.

Back to Maxis though. They're bound to see a sudden and precarious drop in ISP users. Hoping to snare the ones who are too deep into using the maxis.net.my email address to shift to another ISP, this is a mild form of inducement. Pay up on October 1 or your email address is toast. This action is rather high handed and exposes the intentions of the folk at Maxis. Customer happiness be damned, the bottom line is what counts. Who cares if a small mom & pop operation has come to rely on that email address ? They gotta pay to use now.

At the same time, we are not going to see much of a difference in Jaring nor TMNet's subscriber bases. A lot of people used the free ISPs as a backup option to the PPS ISPs. Traffic on the PPS ISPs will increase starting October 1 though as the economics of Maxis will stop making sense on that date. Frankly RM360 a year for 56kbps internet access is preposterous, especially since you'd have to pony up for phone line traffic charges at 3sen a minute as well. Sure Maxis gives a half sen rebate, but that is only for their customers. Doesnt help the majority, does it ?

The Maxis about turn will also raise doubts about the other free ISPs including TimeNet and CelcomNet. When will they capitulate to enhancing shareholder value and start charging for an erstwhile free service ? Will their subscribers also be held by the short and curlies thru threats to discontinue email addresses ? Is any regulatory body looking at this, or perhaps a consumer body at this about turn in affairs ?

Whatever said and done, it is still caveat emptor. The buyer has to be aware and use a little of his grey matter when evaluating free services. Be aware of your provider suddenly realising that all these freebies are pulling him down and be prepared for paying thru your nose if you are ever in a position of no return. Understand that the internet of today is no longer free.

There is a price for everything.

1.) Code Red
OP-ED - madirish
2.)
An Introduction to the SirCam Virus - Manic Velocity
3.) Hardening
your Windows 2000 Server - madirish
4.) End of the
gravy train - Dinesh Nair
5.) Intro to
hacking routers and other nifty bits - octet
6.) Broadband
in Malaysia: A hard look at your options - L33tdawg