Published in the April 13, 2013 edition of The Brunei Times. Click here for the original article
Brunei telco rates highest in ASEAN
Jennee Rubrico
Saturday, April 13, 2013
THE sultanate has the most expensive tariffs for
telecommunications services in the ASEAN, but this does not mean that it
has the fastest Internet connection in the region, a report released by
the World Economic Forum (WEF) the other day shows.The 2013 edition of the Global Information Technology Report, which ranks 144 economies in the world for networked readiness, places Brunei at 135th for affordability of telecommunications services.
It beats the seven other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which were included in the study: Vietnam, which at 38th of 144 economies has the lowest tariff for telecommunications services in the regional bloc; Indonesia, at 39th, Thailand at 45th; Malaysia, ranked 50th; Singapore (55th); the Philippines (82nd); and Cambodia (112th).
The WEF does not include Myanmar and Laos, the two other members of the 10-nation grouping, in the study.
In computing affordability of telecommunications services, WEF factors in mobile cellular tariffs, fixed broadband Internet rates and a competition factor derived from the Internet and telephony sectors competition index.
Brunei fares the worst in ASEAN for mobile cellular and fixed broadband Internet tariffs, with charges averaging US$0.45 a minute for mobile cellular calls and US$81.20 per month for wired broadband Internet service.
In contrast, Thailand, which has the cheapest cellular phone rates among the countries in the region, charges only US$0.09 per minute for calls. Vietnam, for its part, charges US$28.01 per month for fixed Internet services, the lowest among the members of the regional bloc.
For the Internet and telephony sectors competition index which measures the level of competition for Internet services, international long distance calls and mobile telephone services on a scale of 0 to 2 (2 being the highest) Brunei is again at the bottom, with a score of 0.78.
The country has three telco providers: Telekom Brunei Berhad, DST and B-Mobile.
Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore are the regional leaders in the index with the score of 2. All the other countries in the region that are covered by the study score at least 1.79 in the index.
The WEF study also shows that the high Internet tariff of Brunei does not translate to faster connection the country has an international Internet bandwidth per user of 22 kb/s, a far cry from Singapore's 343.7 kb/s.
Brunei's bandwidth, however, is not the lowest in the region. The country of 400,000 people is only slightly behind Thailand's bandwidth of 24.6 kb/s, and is better than Cambodia's 13.5 kb/s, the Philippines' 12.4 kb/s, Malaysia's 10.7 kb/s, Vietnam's 10 kb/s, and Indonesia's 7.2 kb/s.
The WEF study also shows that Bruneians are Internet savvy, ranking second only to Singapore in the region when it comes to the use of virtual social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for professional and personal communications.
And while there are more mobile phone subscriptions than there are people in the sultanate, with an average subscription of 109.2 per for every 100 people, the WEF report shows that the country's telecommunications market has room to grow.
The report shows that only 56 per cent of Bruneians are Internet users, lower than Singapore's 71 per cent and Malaysia's 61 per cent. For every 100 people in the sultanate, only 6.3 have mobile broadband Internet subscriptions, compared to regional leader Singapore's 114.1, Indonesia's 22.2, Vietnam's 18, and Malaysia's 12.3.
And although it ranks third in the region for the category, Brunei only has 5.7 subscriptions for fixed broadband Internet for every 100. Singapore has 25.6 and Malaysia, 7.4.
The country fares better when it comes to households with Internet access and those with personal computers.
According to the WEF, 65 per cent of Bruneian households have Internet access while 79.6 per cent have personal computers. In the region, it trails only Singapore, with 84.8 per cent and 86.1 per cent respectively.
Software piracy in the country, at 67 per cent of the total software units installed, is the third lowest in the region, after Singapore's 33 per cent and Malaysia's 55 per cent.
The study does not indicate Brunei's mobile network coverage rate, or the percentage of total population covered by a mobile network signal. It is the only country in the region with unknown network coverage levels.
On the regulatory indicators, Brunei scored a 4.1 on a range of 0 to 7 in the assessment of its ICT laws, trailing Singapore (5.8), Malaysia (5.2) and Indonesia (4.2) in the region. It ranks third in the region for intellectual property protection, after Singapore and Malaysia.
Competition in the country is within the global average, with Brunei scoring 4.8 on a range of a low of 1 to a high 7. Competition in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand is seen as more intense.
Brunei also lags other countries in the region in the number of procedures and the time required to start a business, at 15 steps and 101 days respectively. Malaysia, and Singapore, which lead in the first indicator, only require three steps, while it only takes three days to start a business in Singapore.
The Philippines, meanwhile, requires more steps than Brunei to start a business (16), but processes the requirements faster, at 36 days.
Brunei is above the global average of 4.3, in a range of 1 to 7, for the social impact of ICT on access to basic services. It scores 5.1 amd is behind Singapore and Malaysia. It is also on the upper side of the range for Internet access in schools, scoring 5.3 in a range of 1 to 7, putting it in second place in the region, after Singapore.
For overall networked readiness, Brunei is ranked 57th of 144 economies, three notches down from 54th place last year.
The Brunei Times
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