Balik Pulau still lags below national average...

...in terms of Internet speed, that is!

The latest comparative internet speed analysis from speedtest.net now includes cities/towns comparison expanded from previously down to just regions/states. With the latest findings, we now know how Balik Pulau is still left behind in terms of average broadband speed with just 1.27Mbps download speed average for Maxis (mobile broadband) and 1.19Mbps for Telekom Malaysia (TM dialup & Streamyx fixed line and Celcom mobile broadband), compared to Penang's average of 3.22Mbps and national average of 1.98Mbps.

This compares to other nearby bigger towns like Bayan Lepas or even Batu Feringghi (with over 12Mbps average top speed) and the only city in the state, George Town with nearly 30Mbps average speed provided by Optical Communication (also known as PenangFon).

To this day, the other major broadband providers in the state, DiGi and P1 are still shying away from Balik Pulau market, likely due to low number of potential customers, as although Balik Pulau is the size of half of Penang Island, it currently has much less than a tenth of the island's population.


By the way, the fastest network in Penang is neither by Malaysia's largest telecommunication company nor by its largest mobile service provider, but within the biggest university in Pulau Pinang - Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM, or formerly established as Universiti Pulau Pinang) being recently elevated as the sole "Apex university" in Malaysia, providing average broadband speed exceeding 50Mbps, ahead of the second contender, Optical Communication at slightly above 40Mbps. The two ISPs continue to keep Penang on #1 rank in the nation for many years now, even far ahead than Malaysia's capital city Kuala Lumpur or administrative capital Putrajaya. The closest contender to Penang today is Melaka, the state which shares recently awarded Unesco World Heritage Site for the States of Straits of Malacca.


However, the two giants USM & Optical can't help the nation much as our national average of 1.98Mbps ranks number 105 in the world, far below other Asian countries of South Korea (#1), Japan (#6), Russia (#25), Singapore (#30) and Taiwan (#34). World's biggest country in terms of number of internet users, China is ranked #76 for its average download speed.

Download Speed

1			South Korea	33.67 Mb/s
2			Aland Islands	24.46 Mb/s
3			Latvia	24.32 Mb/s
4			Republic of Moldova	21.26 Mb/s
5			Lithuania	21.13 Mb/s
6			Japan	20.55 Mb/s
7			Sweden	20.11 Mb/s
8			Romania	18.76 Mb/s
9			Netherlands	18.44 Mb/s
10			Bulgaria	17.84 Mb/s
11			Andorra	15.52 Mb/s
12			Liechtenstein	14.93 Mb/s
13			Portugal	14.75 Mb/s
14			Switzerland	14.36 Mb/s
15			Germany	13.75 Mb/s
16			Denmark	13.62 Mb/s
17			Iceland	13.54 Mb/s
18			Finland	13.26 Mb/s
19			France	11.81 Mb/s
20			Belgium	11.69 Mb/s
21			Czech Republic	11.41 Mb/s
22			Hungary	11.21 Mb/s
23			Slovakia	10.97 Mb/s
24			Austria	10.93 Mb/s
25			Norway	10.83 Mb/s
26			Ukraine	10.79 Mb/s
27			Russia	10.58 Mb/s
28			Estonia	10.27 Mb/s
29			United States	10.03 Mb/s
30			Singapore	9.24 Mb/s
31			Luxembourg	8.40 Mb/s
32			Slovenia	8.35 Mb/s
33			Canada	8.27 Mb/s
34			Taiwan	7.90 Mb/s
35			United Kingdom	7.84 Mb/s
36			Greece	7.59 Mb/s
37			Mongolia	7.16 Mb/s
38			Ghana	7.11 Mb/s
39			Poland	7.10 Mb/s
40			Australia	6.73 Mb/s
41			Isle of Man	6.73 Mb/s
42			Kyrgyzstan	6.65 Mb/s
43			New Zealand	6.23 Mb/s
44			Ireland	6.01 Mb/s
45			Spain	5.85 Mb/s
46			Monaco	5.81 Mb/s
47			Georgia	5.78 Mb/s
48			Faroe Islands	5.77 Mb/s
49			San Marino	5.66 Mb/s
50			Macedonia	5.61 Mb/s
51			Croatia	5.45 Mb/s
52			Chile	5.25 Mb/s
53			Maldives	5.20 Mb/s
54			Malta	5.06 Mb/s
55			Turkey	4.91 Mb/s
56			Jamaica	4.86 Mb/s
57			Macau	4.54 Mb/s
58			Kazakstan	4.48 Mb/s
59			Italy	4.47 Mb/s
60			Trinidad and Tobago	4.46 Mb/s
61			Israel	4.31 Mb/s
62			Thailand	4.20 Mb/s
63			Belarus	4.09 Mb/s
64			Guernsey	3.81 Mb/s
65			Saudi Arabia	3.68 Mb/s
66			Montenegro	3.58 Mb/s
67			United Arab Emirates	3.57 Mb/s
68			Brazil	3.53 Mb/s
69			Jersey	3.41 Mb/s
70			Cyprus	3.36 Mb/s
71			Aruba	3.32 Mb/s
72			Greenland	3.24 Mb/s
73			Guam	3.09 Mb/s
74			Qatar	3.02 Mb/s
75			Grenada	2.99 Mb/s
76			China	2.94 Mb/s
77			Bermuda	2.89 Mb/s
78			Serbia	2.84 Mb/s
79			St. Vincent and Grenadines	2.83 Mb/s
80			Kenya	2.80 Mb/s
81			Kuwait	2.79 Mb/s
82			Azerbaijan	2.79 Mb/s
83			Uganda	2.77 Mb/s
84			Nicaragua	2.72 Mb/s
85			Gibraltar	2.70 Mb/s
86			Bosnia and Herzegovina	2.68 Mb/s
87			Bahamas	2.42 Mb/s
88			New Caledonia	2.40 Mb/s
89			Costa Rica	2.37 Mb/s
90			Rwanda	2.35 Mb/s
91			South Africa	2.33 Mb/s
92			Mexico	2.27 Mb/s
93			Anguilla	2.22 Mb/s
94			Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	2.18 Mb/s
95			Cayman Islands	2.15 Mb/s
96			Martinique	2.14 Mb/s
97			Guadeloupe	2.13 Mb/s
98			Cape Verde	2.12 Mb/s
99			Bahrain	2.12 Mb/s
100			Puerto Rico	2.10 Mb/s
101			Morocco	2.07 Mb/s
102			Argentina	2.03 Mb/s
103			Paraguay	2.01 Mb/s
104			Albania	2.01 Mb/s
105			Malaysia	1.98 Mb/s

* Asian countries in bold.

Now, will Malaysia's bold project, the RM11.3-billion High Speed Broadband (HSBB) initiative undertaken by our biggest government-linked telco, TM Berhad, set to complete by 2015 help us bump up the world rank?

Let's pray it will... and author hopes that the laying of new cables along the 8km Jalan Tun Sardon hilly road stretch is in fact to bring up to 20Mbps or faster connection to Balik Pulau, soon, say by year end or early next year??