DNA on BFM: Spectrum refarming roils telcos

By Karamjit Singh February 4, 2016

‘Buzz-friendly’ choice of words by startups, VCs
The most untruthful claim made yet by a startup

DNA on BFM: Spectrum refarming roils telcos IT wasn’t the first topic I spoke on during today’s shortened show (don’t ask what happened), but considering that RM9.4 billion (US$2.2 billion) was wiped off the market capitalisation of Malaysia’s ‘Big Three’ mobile operators on a single day, it is a huge story we will be following for the next few months.

I am talking about the spectrum refarming that the Malaysian Government has announced, and the uncertainty that this has caused, as Goh Thean Eu’s superb article explains.

And not unusual, as is with case in Malaysia, there is a change in the mechanism that will be used to affect this refarming, with the initial indicated auction method now changed to an upfront assignment fee.

I spoke about this at length with Freda Liu, host of the Tech Talk segment.

Prior to that, we talked about the Groupon connection and the execution bias this association implies in the case of Joel Neoh’s KFit raising its Series A of US$12 million and the undisclosed amount raised by Belazee Group Sdn Bhd in its pre-Series A.

I also explained what pre-Series A really means as well. This in turn led me to comment on the ‘buzz-friendly’ choice of words startups, and even their investors, use.

It makes me even more cynical when I see such generous choice of words used by venture capitalists. Naturally DNA will cut most of the fluff out or qualify their statements with the use of ‘claim.’

That was all we spoke about this week, although I did flag an outrageous example of a startup I choose not to name, which had made what I consider to be the most untruthful claim of all!

To listen to the podcast, click in the link below: