Everyone it seems has been getting on the bandwagon of the 1 Malaysia concept of Prime Minister Najib Razak. Retailers, Property developers, clothing manufacturers and now telcom provider Telekom Malaysia, are all lining behind the 1 Malaysia concept introduced by . TM is the power behind the Everyone Connects campaign with its aspirational youth-oriented theme song. As I write this they are having a party, which locally is referred to as a bash, on Kuala Lumpur’s busiest shopping ad tourism street, Jalan Bukit Bintang.

As a state company Telekom Malaysia has had no problems in getting a key section of the street closed off on the first day of the five week long school holiday; having what seems like a regiment of the Home Affairs Ministry’s paramilitary volunteer force, Rela to keep order, and a guaranteed celebrity line up.

Streetside banners and flyers have heralded the event for Everyone Connects, the campaign to encourage more people to get digitally connected through data exchange, song, video and photos powered by TM.

“Basicly it is launching a new product and upgrade of connection speed,” says Wanda, an enthusiastic teenager in the orange-emblazoned T-shirt.

Her supervisor, Izack, said the event was in support of the Prime Minister’s initiative, with the song echoing the sentiment of the 1 Malaysia concept which seeks to cross the ethnic divides with Malaysian society.

“Now there’s me and you, you and me

We are not alone and we are together

Through my window I can see

Our wildest dreams could be so real.”

I see it as a way for Telekom Malaysia to claw back lost ground as it embarks on a programme to introduce fibre-optic HSBB next year.

Spurred by international criticism that Malaysia’s broadband service is bad and losing the country business compared with competitors, state-owned Telekom Malaysia has been tasked by Prime Minister Najib with wiring up more than 1.2 million households and businesses with optical fibre to enable them access at mega-speed to the Internet. Half the job is slated for completion in 2010. High impact economic areas, contributing significantly to the GDP, are to be the first to be connected to the High Speed Broadband service (HSBB). Four districts in the Klang Valley, the Iskander development zone across the causeway from Singapore and key industrial and commercial parks are slated as priorities.

The HSBB services will include voice, video and data.

The Prime Minister said the HSBB network of between 10Mbps and 1Gbps would give the public, businesses and government agencies a competitive boost via cutting edge communications. Experts say that at these speeds, it will be possible to offer, among others, high definition TV online, live video chat and e-health services.

Meanwhile the company has found a hip way to connect with the youth of the country.