UPDATE: Yes has unveiled more postpaid and prepaid offerings. More specs for the Yes Altitude Android smartphone.
UPDATE 2: We now have a list of compatible devices.
Yes 4G is finally in the mobile business as they have unveiled its commercial 4G LTE postpaid plan. When Yes 4G LTE was launched about 2 weeks ago, they had bundled free prepaid SIMs, with 30GB of quota, with every new Samsung Galaxy J (2016) device. If you’ve been waiting for a postpaid alternative, this could be it.
Kicking things off is the hero Yes 4G LTE Postpaid plan and it is going for RM70/month. With its new “Double Data” promotion, you’ll get a total of 24GB of internet that’s split between 16GB for 4G LTE and 8GB for 4G Broadband that runs on WiMAX. On top of that, it also comes with unlimited calls and SMS but it is only for usage within the Yes network. For comparison, U Mobile’s HERO P70 postpaid offers 15GB of data and unlimited calls for RM70/month but they have a newer plan with double the quota on the way.
Yes also has three other postpaid plans but for now they’re just focusing on the hero product. These three plans are the Postpaid 48, which gives you 10GB of data (6GB 4G LTE+4GB broadband); the Postpaid 128, which gives you 38GB of data (24GB 4G LTE+14GB broadband); and the Postpaid 158, which has a whopping 48GB of data (32GB 4G LTE+14GB broadband).
In addition, Yes also revealed seven prepaid data packs which includes one daily pack (1GB of data for RM5/day), two weekly packs (1GB of data for RM10/week and 2GB of data for RM15/week), and three monthly packs where customers can choose between 4G LTE or 4G Broadband internet. The monthly packs are from RM30/month for 4GB of data, RM48/month for 6GB of data, RM68/month for 10GB of data and RM88/month for 14GB of data.
If you’re interested in prepaid, the starter pack can be yours for RM10 and you get 500MB of 4G LTE data and 8GB of broadband internet bundled with it. Calls are 9 sen/min while SMSes are priced at 9 sen/SMS.
Also unveiled is their new Yes Altitude Android smartphone which is bundled for free with every Yes LTE Postpaid plan. The device gets a 5″ HD IPS display, a Snapdragon 400 processor mated to 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage (expandable via microSD), a 2,300 mAh battery, an 8MP/2MP camera combo and support for dual SIM 4G LTE with VoLTE.
Priced at RM399, this is the most affordable VoLTE smartphone in Malaysia and it comes in 3 colours — gold, white and silver. You can learn more over at their Yes Altitude page.
Yes Altitude Contract Plan
To recap, Yes runs purely on a 4G network with a claimed 85% population coverage consisting of LTE and WiMAX base stations. There’s no legacy 2G/3G technology so everything, including data and voice, is delivered via 4G. For voice, Yes is also Malaysia’s first telco to roll out VoLTE (Voice over LTE). This allows for better call quality and faster call setup times, a fact which we’ve already tested earlier.
In terms of coverage, the network is quite extensive throughout Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah with almost all major towns covered. At the moment, Sarawak isn’t covered yet but Yes are aiming to cover the largest state in Malaysia by end of this year. You can check if your town is covered over here.
For the past year, Yes has been working closely with their partners namely Samsung, Qualcomm, China Mobile, Google and Elitecore Technologies to deliver a full all-IP and high capacity 4G network running on TD-LTE (Band 38 and 40). Yes is said to have invested RM4 billion in the development of both their WiMAX and LTE networks.
As Malaysia’s 5th LTE network, the roll out is rather impressive considering Yes already has a wide footprint with over 4,300 LTE sites. From our experience in the past few weeks, there’s still room to improve particularly in terms of indoor coverage which Yes will eventually address over time. For now, this looks like a compelling 2nd SIM for today’s smartphones as it offers more data at a competitive price. Once they have enough coverage, Yes could be a formidable competitor for the top 3 telcos.
For more information, head on over to the Yes website.
UPDATE 2: Here’s a list of compatible devices on display.
Huawei P9
Huawei P9 Plus
Lenovo Vibe X3
Lenovo Vibe C
Lenovo A6010
Lenovo Vibe P1
Alcatel Shine Lite
Alcatel Pixi4 5-inch
Alcatel Pixi4 5.5-inch
Xiaomi Mi5
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
Xiaomi Redmi 3S
Xiaomi Mi Max
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
Samsung Galaxy J1
Samsung Galaxy J5
Samsung Galaxy J7
Samsung Galaxy Note5
Yes Altitude
