Mar 19

By Saul Hansell

There is a constant refrain that the United States is falling behind in broadband, as if the speed of Internet service in Seoul represents a new Sputnik that is a challenge to national security.

It’s certainly true that in some countries, like South Korea, far more homes have broadband connections than in the United States. And the speeds in some countries are far higher than is typical here.

But there are many ways to measure the bandwidth wealth of nations. At the Columbia/Georgetown seminar on the broadband stimulus yesterday, I heard Leonard Waverman, the dean of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, describe a measure he developed called the “Connectivity Scorecard.” It’s meant to compare countries on the extent that consumers, businesses and government put communication technology to economically productive use.
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Dec 21

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 (Bernama) — Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has reported disruption in its Internet services due to circuit faults on the submarine cable network linking Malaysia and Europe, and said the services would be completely restored by Dec 31.

TM said in a statement today that customers using its Internet services may experience slow browsing while accessing websites hosted in Europe and that those using other IP (Internet Protocol) services such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other critical business applications linked to Europe may also experience some service degradation.

It said the affected cables, on the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SMW4) submarine network between Palermo in southern Italy and Alexandria in northern Egypt, were being repaired and that some of the links, meanwhile, had been re-routed to ease congestion.

During the restoration process, traffic to northern America may experience minor degradation while traffic to other countries is unaffected, it said.

Customers can call TM at 100 and select “Internet Services” or e-mail TM at help@tm.com.my regarding Internet-related problems, it added.

– BERNAMA