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Posts tagged wireless
Review on Maxis Wireless Broadband!
Aug 21st
Thanks to my colleague which able to lend me her Maxis Wireless Broadband for a review. This review supposed to be posted last month, but because of the broadband issue (I cut the subscription) I was unable to do so.
Anyway, I managed to test the Maxis Wireless Broadband at 2 places.
The Installation
The installation is quite easy, but you need to set it up before you can use it. This is because the modem that she got is a ZTE modem. Compared to the Celcom Wireless Broadband that I have, it is a bit harder to start using it. With my Celcom Wireless Broadband, I can just plug and play without need to set-up anything.
Kampung Raja Uda
Here, it is amazingly fast. Look at the screenshot of the testing that I did.
At Home (Pandamaran Jaya)
Here I managed to test the Maxis Wireless Broadband with my own Celcom Wireless Broadband simultaneously. The first speedtest is using Maxis Broadband and the second test is using my Celcom Broadband. Check out the differences. Nearly 1.5Mbps differences.
P/S: This review is done before I got my own Maxis wireless broadband. Do remember that the broaband speed depends on the area that you’re using it.
Celcom Wireless Broadband Service 2nd Review
Feb 8th
After few months using Celcom Wireless Broadband, here is my second review on the service.
Honestly the service is getting worse. On my first review, the service to me is very good compared to other wireless broadband service providers at that time in my area. Now I’m not really sure.
The Speed
Here are the speed test results that I tested recently.
At Home
First place that I’ve tested is at home (Pandamaran Jaya). Below are the results:
The speed is a lot slower than before, the speed before is 1.23 Mb per second but now, it is only 0.20 Mb per second. That is more than 1 Mb per second difference. The connection is still strong. The indicator showed 4 bar of HSDPA connection out of 5 bar. Just imagine that I have a nearly perfect connection and that is the speed for it. The opposite thing happened to the upload speed. It is a bit faster than before by 0.03 Mb per second.
Kampung Raja Uda
Compared to before, the data transfer speed in Kampung Raja Uda (my parent’s place) is very fast… The fastest from all the places that I’ve tested the service.
Before the speed is 1.82 Mb per second. The speed change according to my location in the house.
Jalan Young
As for my in-laws place at Pandamaran Jaya (Jalan Young), the speed is 0.18 Mb per second which is the slowest among all of the places.
I hope that Celcom will improve their service or their customers might change to other service provider as it is a lot easier now to subscribe with any broadband service provider compared to before.
Conclusion:
For the time being, it is still OK with me (just give them a bit more time) and I’m hoping that they will improve their service in the near future as more and more competitor in the wireless broadband industry are coming in. The price and the broadband limit is affordable to me (RM98 for 3.6Mbps with 5GB of bandwidth) compared to other service providers that provide less broadband limit at a higher price.
Digi Wireless Broadband.
May 26th
Recently Digi launched their new product, Digi Wireless Broadband. The packages seems competitive to me.
The Digi Wireless Broadband have 3 type of packages and you can choose either to take it with a modem or without (if you already have a modem). The packages are as follows:
- Discover :
- With modem: RM58 + RM15 = RM 73 (Package + Modem Installment)
- Without modem: RM53 (RM5 discount for 12 months. Will be RM58 after 12 months)
- Speed: Up to 700Kbps
- Usage limit: 3GB
- Explore :
- With modem: RM108 (Modem is FREE)
- Without modem: RM98 (RM10 discount for 12 months. Will be RM108 after 12 months)
- Speed: Up to 700Kbps
- Usage limit: 10GB
- Extreme :
- With modem: RM188 (Modem is FREE)
- Without modem: RM168 (RM20 discount for 12 months. Will be RM188 after 12 months)
- Speed: Up to 2Mbps
- Usage limit: 20GB
Cancellation will be charge a termination fee. The fee is “Normal Monthly Modem Installment” + ”Remaining Months of Your Modem Tenure”. For example you’ve used the service for 6 months, you will need to pay RM30 x 6 months = RM180. For Discover & Explore package, the modem normal monthly installment is RM30 and for Extreme package, it will be RM50. The modem design is the same as the modem from Maxis.
You need to pay RM100 in advance and the modem comes with 18 months warranty.
Summary
My opinion, the price and the usage limit is quite OK. The problem with Digi to me might be the coverage. I’ve checked from their website and my area only have EDGE connection and from my experience using Celcom, when it is connected to EDGE it is rather slow.
Compared to Celcom Wireless Broadband in terms of price and speed, Digi should make their packages cheaper. Even P1 W1MAX can give a better offer. I hope that Digi can widen their coverage as they always says that they have the widest coverage, but you should have better 3G coverage instead of only voice. Anyway, I predict that in the future the price of the broadband, not only wireless will be much more competitive as more and more service provider like Digi is in the arena as well.
For more information, please visit Digi Wireless Broadband website at digi.com.my/broadband.
Wireless Broadband at PC Fair 2009 (I)
May 10th
Sorry that I don’t really have much post recently as I’m very busy with my son’s “aqiqah” and my father was sick. Anyway, just a short post on the Wireless Broadband service provider at PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (I).
The war on wireless broadband at PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (I) is getting bigger. They have booth at both upper and lower halls and their booth are massive.
P1 W1MAX
Always the one that I will expect some new thing or changes from them. P1 W1MAX applies the same marketing technique that they used last year that is the money booth (actually I’m not sure what it is called). After you sign-up to any of their package, you will have the chance to get into the money booth (you can check the image below) and need to catch as many paper money that you can get when they started blowing air into the booth.
They said that inside the booth there is one RM5000 paper money inside and that is the highest value. Anyway, after you did just that, you will entitled a deduction of your subscription for their service from the total paper money value that you’ve collected.
P1 W1MAX Wiggy
Before, I was wondering when will they have their own portable modem and this time P1 have reached my expectation. The new device is called “Wiggy”. Yeah… it is a portable modem from P1. No SIM card is needed not like other service provider as it just received signal from the Wimax transmission. The package that comes with it is RM149 (12 months contract) and speed for up to 10Mbps speed and 10GB data transfer usage. That is really cool. The price is a little bit to high for me but it is suitable for anyone with heavy Internet usage and downloads. The first payment will be as follows:
- WIGGY Portable Modem Fee: RM299
- Registration Fee: RM100
So the total will be RM399. Activation fee for RM60 will be charge in the first bill. Wish that they will have a cheaper package and I don’t mind with a lesser speed, maybe 5Mbps for RM90 will be great.
They have a package with a netbook as well. You can get an Acer Aspire One Netbook for free when you sign up for WIGGY with a 24 months contract (only with selected credit card). You need to pay RM459 upfront and RM149 monthly for 24 months.
Celcom Wireless Broadband
I don’t want to touch much on Celcom. I think they have the most sales people around PC Fair and some of them I’m met at the Celcom Wireless Broadband Roadshow. Celcom does not have any special promotion for their Wireless Broadband service. The one that I know of is RM250 for the Vodafone modem (no contract) and you need to subscribe to one of the wireless broadband package.
Maxis
The largest or the most booth for wireless broadband service provider. They have a lot of sales people as well. From only RM88 a month for Maxis postpaid customer. You can see more details from the image below.
From 88 a month if you’re a Maxis postpaid user. The payment is only for 1 year, after that you will have to pay RM118. No contract. Just return the modem once you want to cancel the subscription. The reasons that I do not want to subscribe to Maxis is because it only gives you 3GB data transfer usage and so far the coverage is not that good around my area as I’m using Maxis postpaid line and so far the coverage is not that good.
This is a short post that I can write about the Wireless Broadband Service Providers at PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (I). Sorry for the late post.
Note: Most of the promotion above are for PC Fair only.
About PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (I)
Apr 26th
This time PIKOM PC Fair is better compared to the previous fair. Actually it is amazing. I went on Friday after work and Saturday to accompany my brother to purchase a notebook.
Although I didn’t manage to cover all the booth there because of the time constrain (actually I can’t stand the crowd) but from my view, it is a very good event this time.
PC Fair upper halls
Like PC Fair 2008 (III), Intel have their own hall called PC Guru to explain more about their line of new products. It was really cool to see the multiple screen preview.
On the other side of the hall was the “R U Sony?” event. I’m not really sure what it is all about but from what I know of, it is the preview of their latest product and the reason that I don’t want to find out about it is that the queue is very long.
The first hall now have all the wireless broadband service provider. The largest will be Maxis and Celcom of course. The offer for Maxis Broadband is RM88 with modem without contract for Maxis postpaid user. Celcom Wireless Broadband offered RM250 for the Vodafone modem only with no contract if you apply the D68 or D98 package. Will write more about the wireless broadband at PIKOM PC Fair in future post.
This time they do not have the hall for all the audio devices. I’m not sure why, but they replace it with notebooks. So, the hall of audio devices became the hall of notebooks. The price is really cool, especially from HP. I love HP notebooks.
Here is where my brother bought his notebook, the “HP TouchSmart tx2″. Damn cool device. My dream notebook… Sigh… Will make a review on that machine soon. Anyway, after waiting so long for the notebook, we continue to another hall that have all the big players in the IT industry same as the first hall still in the notebook category of vendors.
One of the obvious thing is that there are less PC Fair Babes around this time compare to before, but there are more photographer with their DSLR camera around. Hehe… no comment on that…
PC Fair lower halls
After all the hall above, we went down. Here they have the small vendor most of it from all over Klang Valley. Compare to the previous fair, this time there are less booth that sells notebook skin but more on the other accessories such as cooling pad, headphones, mouse and lots of notebook bags. Yeah, there are lots of notebook bags everywhere. From branded notebook bags such Golla to a RM35 bag, from backpack to trolley bag you can get it there.
Booth from Inter – Asia Technology Sdn. Bhd. promoting the “steelseries” (professional gaming gear) nice too. They have these gaming gear that are really cool especially the “World of Warcraft” series. I’m not so into the PC gaming nowadays but all those gears are really cool and it makes me like want to go to the gaming world again. From mouse, mouse pad, headphones and keyboard all is really nice to use. The mouse and keyboard from the “World of Warcraft” is really cool and it is really expensive.
There are a few booth that sells GPS and it seems like there are more of them this time compared to the previous fair. There is one booth that have my attention, it sells solar panel charging device. You can charge your handphone, digital camera, etc. under the sunlight or just normal light or you can charge the solar panel charger and you can charge you gadgets later even without sun light or any light at all.
At the end of the hall there are still some booth by wireless broadband service provider. I bought my Celcom Vodafone modem and subscribe to the Celcom Wireless Broadband. I got the modem for RM240 with no contract and additional RM98 for the first month subscription. That is good for me although not as good as what my brother got at the Celcom Broadband Roadshow.
Summary
Overall PIKOM PC Fair 2009 (I) is great. Hope it will continue to be like this and even better. The same thing that I realize is that there are more booth on broadband services and they hire a lot… I mean a lot of sales people… They are everywhere when you pass by their booth and the booth are freaking big.
They have booth on upper and lower hall. It seems that the wireless broadband service providers are really serious on selling their services. I hope that some of them will make their service better before really promoting it.
Purchase
At last what all of us purchased from the fair:
Myself: Notebook cable lock, USB LED light, clip-on microphone, Celcom Vodafone modem and subscribe to Celcom Wireless Broadband (D98: 3.6 Mbps)
My brothers: HP TouchSmart tx2.
Our family friends: WD External hard drive.
My brother collected a free gift from PIKOM because of his purchase that are above RM300 and I forgot to collect mine. He got a 2GB PIKOM USB thumbdrive (see image below).
Share your experience at any PC Fair in Malaysia.
