BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER IN MALAYSIA

That list in your photo is Malaysia's 1G/2G origin story — before we even talked about "ISP" for home internet.

This is what those prefixes meant:

• 011 : ATUR — ATUR 450, Automatic Telephone Using Radio. Malaysia's first wireless system launched in 1985 by Jabatan Telekom Malaysia (JTM) on NMT 450. Big, bulky phones in cars.
• 010 : ART 900 (CELCOM ANALOG) — Automatic Radio Telephone 900. Launched in 1989 by Celcom (then STM Cellular) on ETACS / TACS technology to supplement ATUR which couldn't handle traffic. Sold as Celcom after JTM corporatized to Telekom Malaysia.
• The rest are the 1990s liberalization: 012 Maxis, 013 EMARTEL (later TimeCel), 016 DiGi, 017 ADAM (later TM Touch / TM Cellular), 018 MobiKom, 019 Celcom GSM. All these got GSM licences around 1994-1995.

So mobile was first. Internet came just after:

Brief history of ISPs in Malaysia

1. Pre-Internet (1988): MIMOS built RangKom — Rangkaian Komputer Malaysia — with 4 dial-up lines to Australia, US, Netherlands, South Korea for email and newsgroups.

2. First ISP — JARING (1992): Under the Sixth Malaysia Plan, MIMOS launched JARING, Malaysia's first ISP.

3. TMNet and dial-up era (1995-2000): Telekom Malaysia launched TMNet in 1995, which became the largest provider. From 1995-1996 only 1% of Malaysians were online. Maxis, DiGi, Time dotCom all launched their own dial-up ISPs — MaxisNet, DiGiNet, TimeNet.

4. Broadband (2001-2010): 2001 TM launches Streamyx ADSL — first affordable broadband. 2008 Packet One (P1) launches first WiMAX on 802.16e. 2010 Government launches High-Speed Broadband (HSBB) initiative, TM launches UniFi fibre.

5. Mobile Internet (2000s - now): 2.5G GPRS makes WAP internet possible, then 3G video call first by Celcom in 2003, then 4G LTE first by Maxis in 2013.

6. Today: From 56% online in 2010 to 98% by 2023 per World Bank. The market consolidated to 5 licensed cellular operators as of 2022: CelcomDigi, Maxis, U Mobile, YTL Communications and unifi mobile — but hundreds of licensed ISPs under MCMC for fibre.

In short: ATUR/ART 900 were voice only. JARING gave Malaysia internet, TMNet made it mainstream, Streamyx/UniFi brought it into homes, and smartphones made it universal.

Those 7 names in your photo were the original 1993-1995 mobile licenses — Telekom Malaysia's monopoly was broken in 1993 and government gave out 6 new licences plus TM's own. They all started as voice telcos, then became Internet providers when they added GPRS / 3G / 4G. Here's each one:

1. 011 — ATUR 450 (Jabatan Telekom Malaysia): The OG. Launched 1985 by JTM on NMT 450. Analog, car phones. By 1987 JTM was corporatized to Telekom Malaysia (TM). Discontinued.
2. 010 — ART 900 & 019 — Celcom GSM (Celcom): Celcom is the oldest private telco. Founded 1988 as STM Cellular by Fleet Holdings + Telekom. ART 900 launched 1989 on ETACS — first private cellular, given a 5-year monopoly to compete with ATUR. In March 1995 it launched Celcom GSM 900  as 019, so for a while it ran both analog ART (010) and digital GSM (019). Launched Malaysia's first 3G in 2006, first to claim 98% pop coverage. Merged with DiGi to become CelcomDigi on 1 Dec 2022.
3. 012 — Maxis (Binariang): Licence granted 1993 to Binariang. Launched digital GSM 900 in 1995 as 012. Became Maxis Communications. In 2003 it bought TimeCel (017) for $340M, making it largest operator then. First to launch 4G LTE in Malaysia in Jan 2013.
4. 013 — Emartel : Emartel was run by MRCB. Launched 1994-95 on GSM 1800 (PCN). Telekom Malaysia didn't get a digital licence initially, so TM bought Emartel and rebranded it to TM Touch — TM's first foray into digital mobile. 013 is now under U Mobile after number portability.
5. 016 — DiGi 1800 (Mutiara Telecom) : Licenced 1994 to Mutiara Swisscom. Launched as DiGi 1800 in May 1995 on GSM 1800. Known as cheap youth brand. In 2001 Telenor bought 61% stake. Later expanded to fibre (DiGi Home Fibre) and mobile broadband. Now part of CelcomDigi.
6. 017 — ADAM / TimeCel : ADAM was Sapura Digital, launched Aug 1995 on GSM 1800. In 2000 Sapura sold to TIME dotCom, rebranded from ADAM to TIMEcel in 2000 as part of new identity. Then TIMEcel was bought by Maxis in 2003 and merged.
7. 018 — Mobikom (Mobifon 800) : Mobikom launched 1993/94 on AMPS/D-AMPS 800MHz analog. Built nationwide including Sabah/Sarawak. TM took control in 1998 and fully owned by May 1998. It was TM's second cellular arm alongside TM Touch (GSM 1800 launched 1995). Both later consolidated into TM Cellular → webe → unifi Mobile. 018 prefix now allocated to U Mobile.

So timeline summary:

• 1993-95: 7 operators → unsustainable for 20M people. 1997 Asian financial crisis wiped out TimeCel and Celcom debt.
• 1998-2003: TM consolidates Mobikom + Emartel → TM Touch. Maxis buys TimeCel/ADAM.
• 2008-2022: 5 survivors → Celcom, Maxis, DiGi, U Mobile, Yes. Now 4 after Celcom+DiGi merger.

They all went from voice prefix companies to ISPs when GPRS (2001), 3G (2005), WiMAX (2008), 4G (2013) arrived.

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

2 September 2026: 10.49 p.m