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A few days ago I was driving to go to my parent’s house and realize that there is a billboard on P1 W1MAX. They have reach Klang district in couple of months since it was launched. For me, that is quite a breakthrough.

Even other wireless broadband service providers that have been long in the market didn’t give a wide coverage as P1 in very short period of time. They have advertise in the newspaper and it seems they have spread out to a few major town nationwide (Alor Star, Johor Bharu and even Klang. hahaha…).

I’ve never use the P1 W1MAX service before, but I have a friend that uses it. He stayed at Seri Petaling and it seems that the connection and service is very good there.

Unfortunately it still doesn’t covers my housing area yet. Looking forward to it in the future. I can’t wait for them to provide a portable modem so that people can use it on the go as well. That will be great.

You can check whether they have coverage at your area by clicking here.

P/S: Sorry for the blur picture as my wife took it for me while I’m driving.

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Technology broadband, klang, p1, port klang, w1max, wimax, wireless, wireless broadband

One of my Director gave a few invitation card to go to the “ACM:2008 ASEAN ICT EXPO” held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre at KLCC. The expo titled “EXPERIENCING CONVERGENCE. MY BROADBAND EXHIBITION AND CONFERENCE 2008″ is held from 28-30 October 2008.

I went there on the 30th October 2008 with my colleague, Thristhan right after lunch. It was very interesting as the exhibition is mainly about broadband services and technology. All the main player of the wireless broadband service providers was there; Celcom, Maxis, iZZi, P1 W1MAX and U.

One of the interesting booth is the D’Impian Smart Home. TM together with a few other sponsors join ventured in this what they called “Smart Home”. It is interesting to know the technology that they have.

At the Celcom Broadband Booth, they have a competition where you need to find the differences on pictures and if you win, you’ll get a 3G phone. Damn that was cool. When I queued, they only have 2 set left and the 2 person right in front of us won both of the phone. Damn!

At TM booth I managed to win a T-Shirt for the Quiz and again another T-Shirt for the Lucky Draw. Hehehe… I got some luck with T-Shirts on that day. Anyway, the main price for the Lucky Draw is iPod Nano.

Anyway, below are some of the pictures from the exhibition.

[Show as slideshow]

Cyber World (The Net), Technology, exhibition broadband, celcom, KLCC, maxis, p1, Technology, u, wireless broadband

It sounds iZZi but it is not.

As I’ve mentioned on my previous post that I’ve subscribe to iZZi Wireless Broadband, so this post is the review of the service.

Let me start my review with how it all started at PC Fair II 2008.

It’s all started at Pikom PC Fair II 2008, where I went there to buy a thumbdrive, check out the latest technology and latest offer for Wireless Broadband services as I really wanted to have an Internet connection without the hassle to subscribe to a land line. At the end, I end up at the last hall of the PC Fair and at the end there was a group of wireless broadband service providers and Streamyx booth as well.

After listening to the explanation of the promoter, I’ve decided to subscribe to iZZi. The key point that makes me subscribe to iZZi is because the promoter told me that their station is very close to my housing area and the station covered an area of 13km radius. So for me that is a very big coverage. The station is in Pandamaran and I’m staying in Pandamaran Jaya, Pelabuhan Klang. The other point is that the other service providers have a limit of 3GB file transfer in a month as for iZZi, she said it is unlimited.

As I didn’t bring so much cash, I paid a deposit of RM50 and return back to PC Fair with my wife, my son and my brothers on the next day (2nd August 08).

I took iZZiyou6 package that cost me RM699 (need to pay upfront).

The review begins

At Home…

I can’t wait to test it out right after I got back home.

Installation…

I just need to insert the installation CD that will install the driver and application software. It is very simple to install it. Then I just need to plug in the modem using the USB port. Windows will detect the device straight away.

Below is the pictures of the modem and installation CD:

[Show as slideshow]

The signal strength is around 20 to 40 percent but most of the time it will be at 30%. I keyed in the temporary username and password that they provide to activate my account on the web and I’m connected to the wireless broadband. It was really slow when I tried to register the iZZi account. It took me more than 40 minutes to complete the online registration as the connection keep on disconnecting and I need to re-submit the form a few times. I’m a bit frustrated at that time but I’m telling myself that it might be for a short while.

I disconnected the temporary ID and use my own username and password. All of a sudden it became faster than before. The signal strength is still the same but the speed is a lot better. To tell you how fast is the speed, just imagine opening a Google.com page takes you up to 4 to 5 minutes. Just imagine that! To make myself happy I’m blaming the Internet Explorer, so I downloaded Mozilla Firefox.

After installing Firefox the speed is still the same. I’ve managed to call the sales promoter and she said that I need to put the modem close to the window as it cannot get a good signal if there is any blockage. For me that is ridiculous as why we need to move our PC close to the window just to get a good signal. The device was supposed to be mobile, so it should be able to get a good signal anywhere.

Once in a while the broadband speed increases and I managed to download my AVG AntiVirus updates and Mozilla Firefox after leaving my computer to run for quite sometime.

A few days later…

I still testing it after a few days. I took it to my parents house in Kampung Raja Uda, Pelabuhan Klang and my parent in-laws’ house in Pandamaran, still the signal is either very weak or there is no signal at all.

For 1 to 2 days I was able to use the service in low speed. On the fourth and fifth day, I tested out the connection after work and there is no connection at all. That is the main reason I want to get a refund.

I text messaged the sales promoter to return the modem and she told me that I need to return the modem at Menara Olympia, Kuala Lumpur in order to get the refund. The office is open only on weekdays and on office hour. Luckily that I’m working in Kuala Lumpur and my employer is good enough to give me a release time for this purpose I managed to go there. Just imagine you’re not working in KL, I bet that you need to take at least a half day leave just to make the refund.

Refund

The refund process is very simple. The person in-charge will come and you need to answer a few questions and they will give a copy of the form to you as a reference. She told me that they will charge me if I use more than 3MB of data transfer. I was shock as the promoter didn’t tell me about it. To me, “Whatever…” as long as I get my money back. She told me that it will take around 1 month for them to process the refund and they need to check my Internet usage as they will charge me if it is more that 3MB.

After a month, I started to call them as there is no call from their side for my refund status. The first time I called, the person told me he cannot find my name in the system. I was a bit tampered at that time. Anyway, I asked him to check it for me and call me immediately after they manage to find my name or what is my refund status. There is no call and I called them back a few days after that. Then they told me that they just started to process the refund and it will take a few more weeks.

Just imagine that. You need to pay up-front immediately for the service and they need to take nearly 2 months to process your refund.

Anyway, to cut it short. After a few calls and few weeks, I managed to get  the refund on 26 September 08.

Conclusion*:

• Don’t subscribe if you are not really in Klang Valley center area, like Kuala Lumpur.
• Don’t subscribe if you’re not sure the area that you want to use the service have a good coverage. Because they will charge you if you exceed the 3MB limit, although you return it within 7 days (Please lah… even the Mozilla Firefox download is larger than 3MB.)
• They are not sincere when they mentioned about the 7 days money back guarantee as they still charge you the processing fee RM82 (that is quite high for just processing) and usage above 3MB.
• Long refund period. It took me nearly 2 months to get my refund.

*This is based on my personal experience and it may differ for each individual as it might be because of other factor.

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Blog, Life, Review, Technology broadband, celcom, internet, izzi, Review, wireless broadband

For quite sometime I don’t have any Internet access at home. I’ve been accessing the Internet from office all these while. Now I’m ready to go online again outside the office.

I’m looking for a wireless broadband because I want to buy a notebook/laptop in the future and I’m barely at home.

Now there are 4 choices that I know of in the market:

First we have the famous, most advertise, Maxis Wireless Broadband. They are doing nationwide promotion on it and now they have these modem skinning thingy that comes with it.

The second choice is the Celcom Wireless Broadband. The third is the Izzi Mobile Wireless Broadband and last, the Surf With U.

Maxis Wireless Broadband

I think we can see their advertisement or their agent nearly everywhere, but how about the coverage? I will cover about that later.

It cost RM138 per month for 3.6Mbps and one time activation fee of RM100. The limited edition skin is available at certain location, mostly in Klang Valley. You can send SMS as well (that will be a different charge). Now they have taken out the contract terms where last time, you need to have a contract of 12 months with them before you can terminate the service. The funny thing is that they giving you 7 days of trial period (they called it cooling-off period) where you can try it and terminate the service (you have to return the modem as well) with no extra cost if you’re not satisfy with it. They will return the activation fee to you too. If you have pass the 7 days period and you want to terminate the service, you need to pay a handling fee of RM200.

As for the coverage, it is improving. Compare to a few months back, it was really bad and I receive a lot of complaints from a lot of people.

My opinion: A little bit expensive compare to the other services providers, good 7 days cooling-off period, the coverage and the speed is getting better and cool looking modems.

Read more…

Cyber World (The Net), Life, Technology 4G, broadband, celcom, internet, izzi, maxis, surf, u mobile, wireless, wireless broadband