Telekom Malaysia will launch the High Speed Broadband (HSBB) retail service at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur this 24 March 2010. TM will announce a new branding for its HSBB service as well as its packages and pricing.

The initial four areas that will be covered by TM HSBB services at the time of service launch will be Shah Alam, Subang Jaya, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Bangsar.

While Malaysians are preparing ourself for Earth Hour like we did last year, TM on the other hand in its press release said:

To mark the countdown to March 24 2010 in a grand manner, the entire Menara TM will be lit up every evening starting from 15 March 2010 with a graphical countdown projection beam depicting a countdown clock leading up to the gala launch date.

The RM11.3 billion NATIONAL HSBB project ONLY involves between TM (out of about 20 ISPs out there) and the Government Malaysia. TM will operate, own, control and set whatever pricing they want for HSBB and promises “open access” to other ISPs and content developers. Note that only the Government has the definition of this “Open Access”.

TM’s total expenditure related to the HSBB project as of 31 December 2009 reached RM1.9 billion while the total of approved claims from Government up to December 2009 stands at RM990 million. In terms of premises passed, TM has wired up to 152,000 premises passed as at 31 December 2009.

The HSBB service will be launched by Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak.

I will post up my experience on HSBB before the launch, stay tuned!