Here is the History of the Internet in Malaysia

Back in the pre-internet days, we had this old school dial-up internet that was connected to the phone line.

Every time someone used the internet, no one else could make calls from the house phone. The epic part of using dial-up internet was the loud sound that came out from the modem before it connected to the internet: beep bip bip bip bip bip bip… [ Sekarang ni kalau dengar bunyi ni kat printer masa nak fax documents, terus KLMJ zaman guna internet zaman 90an dulu ]

If you happened to have a mother yang suka bergossip pulak, usually, boleh dengar mak korang kat luar tu menjerit-jerit suruh kita tutup Internet sebab dia nak sembang ngan gossip buddy dia. Hahahaha....

From dial-up internet connection to fixed lines and wireless – we bet you’re curious about the evolution of the internet in Malaysia.

So here’s the story of how Malaysia got the world wide web – sit back, relax, and munch on your popcorn. Hahaha... Poyo jerrrr

The fixed line internet

The internet first came to Malaysia way back in 1987, in conjunction with MIMOS (Malaysian Institutes of Microelectronics Systems).

To realise the 6th Malaysia Plan – providing internet services to the whole nation, MIMOS gave birth to JARING (Joint Advanced Research Integrated Network), Malaysia’s first internet service provider, in 1992.

However, it was only really in 1995 that the internet became more widely available and Cari Internet, Malaysia’s first search engine and web portal company, was founded in 1996.

In April 2001, a Streamyx broadband internet service was launched by Telekom Malaysia Bhd at the speed of 384 Kbps (that was pretty fast back then!).

Wireless connection

In 2010, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced a government programme that was designed to make high-speed internet accessible and affordable to all of us Malaysians. 

According to data from the MCMC, in 1995, just 1 in every 1,000 Malaysians had access to the internet – now, at the end of 2013, 226 out of every 1,000 Malaysians have access to the internet!

And the way people are using the internet on their phones is also completely changing the mobile world – people are opting for apps like Facebook, Whatsapp, Viber, Line, Hangouts and more to avoid having to pay for a phone call or SMS.

What’s next for the internet? Well, it isn’t hard to predict that the next generation’s lives will revolve even more around the internet.

In fact, we’d go so far to say that should we ever lose high-speed internet, that day will be the internet generation’s doomsday!

Do you remember those days of dial-up internet?