Jalur Lebar Nasional (JALENAS) Sdn Bhd of Malaysia and Maipu Communication Technology Co. Ltd. (MAIPU) of Sichuan province, China jointly announced a strategic partnership on 26 April in Kuala Lumpur.

This deal follows the signing of a Joint Action Plan on Malaysia-China Strategic Cooperation between the China and Malaysia governments, following Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak's visit to China some months ago.

The signing of this partnership agreement was witnessed by Dato’ Sri Adnan Hj. Yaakob, Chief Minister of Pahang State, Malaysia and  Mr. Jian Jufeng ,Governor of Sichuan Province, China.

MAIPU is a professional supplier of IP network equipment and application solutions. Its products comprise a full range of routers, switches, VoIP communications, security and integrated access equipment, all of which are used in over 30 countries. It's a main network equipment supplier of telecoms operators, financial institutions, and government departments in China.

MAIPU's engineers will help accelerate deployment of  JALENAS' open-access fibre broadband network, in Kuantan, Pahang state, which is due for completion by the end of the year. Following that,  it will participate in the deployment of the JALENAS city network in Johor Bahru, Johor state.

Besides high-technology products, the partnership will also provide services and finance to the JALENAS project.

The company, JALENAS is wholly-owned by High Speed Broadband Technology Sdn Bhd (“HSBT”), which in turn is partly owned by Pahang Technology Resources Sdn Bhd, a Pahang State Government company. Its fibre-based network was officially launched in Kuantan on 4 August, 2009 by the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak and JALENAS plans to be accessible to 2.5 million homes and offices nationwide within five years. http://bit.ly/caL7nu

With the JALENAS network being based on the open-access business model, JALENAS will not provide services directly to end users so as to avoid competing with providers of similar services over its network.

Instead, third parties such as Internet service providers, cellular, WiMAX and other network operators will lease capacity on JALENAS' network to provide services to their end users.

For example, a cellular or WiMAX operator could rent capacity on JALENAS' network for a backhaul link between their base stations and their network core, thus saving them from having to build their own links. A DSL fixed access provider could use JALENAS' fibre in the backhaul to its network core, while Satellite TV operator Astro is also said to have shown interest in delivering its programmes over JALENAS, where until now it beams them via its Measat satellites.

This open-access business model has gained favour especially in the more developed countries, including in Europe, in Asia and in Singapore, as it encourages fair competition by providing service providers with a level playing field.

The lack of such a model has been a contentious issue in Malaysia, where thanks to its over 120 years headstart, the incumbent fixed line operator owns most of the nationwide fixed network, which it does lease out to competitors, while it continues to compete with them by providing similar services to end users. The newer service providers see this as a conflict of interest.

Off for now

At JALENAS' launch last August, JALENAS would own the network, while Ericsson Malaysia was to be the equipment provider, project manager, network operator and maintainer, without itself providing any services to end users. http://bit.ly/caL7nu

However, since then, the JALENAS/Ericsson partnership could not be continued. "While Ericsson is a fine company with great technology, unfortunately it could not satisfy our non-standard requirements this time but we hope to work with Ericsson again in the future," explained JALENAS executive director, Heikal M. Ali.

For now, no other company has replaced Erisson's role in the JALENAS project, while multiple vendors, including MAIPU will supply different network components.

However, JALENAS' relationship with Swedish company, PacketFront continues through its local partner Metroverse Sdn Bhd which will provide the DRG 600 Digital  Residential Gateway – a kind of set-top-box - in the premises, and its BECS control and provisioning system which lets end-users subscribe to or unsubscribe from whatever third-party services and packages they want