TM to start charging for UniFi installations

TM announced today that come 1 October 2010 TM will begin charging for UniFi installations.

From 1 October onwards TM will charge RM200 per installation for any UniFi package however the equiptment that comes with the UniFi package — the fiber modem, wireless router, IPTV set-top box, DECT cordless phone and additional outdoor terminals — will still be provided for free.

TM’s executive VP for consumer products, Imri Mokthar said in the announcement that although there will be an installation charge, those who has registered for UniFi before the changeover date will not have to pay for installation.

We think RM200 is a fair charge considering the amount of work required at the various equipment that you get for free. The fibre-optic cable that is laid in your house alone will cost more than RM200. So it’s a decent charge. What’s more the RM200 installation charge will be spread across five months at RM40/month, so you don’t actually feel the pinch right away and that’s ok too.

What we don’t like is how TM makes is sound that you’re actually getting an additional RM200 off if you sign-up for UniFi from now until 30 September. Technically you’re not, TM’s just going to start charging for installation after 30 September.

It’s really confusing for customers and very underhanded for TM. Shame on you TM for using such a tactic.

If you’re not up for paying the RM200, then sign-up ASAP. Though what is not being mentioned is what happens if an interested customer wants to sign-up for UniFi but stays in an area that is not yet covered.

Does the customer get to sign-up and have the RM200 installation charge waived when the UniFi service eventually becomes available in their area or will they have to wait for the service to be available and then sign-up?

On a side-note, there’s currently 9,000 UniFi subscribers and another 12,000 who have already signed-up waiting for the service to be installed. In July 2010, there was about 3,200 UniFi subscribers. No bad in a span of just a month.

You can read the full TM announcement after the jump.

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YTL Comms working on 4G mobile phone and 4G MiFi?

The devices shown above are for dramatisation only. We have no info on the exact devices that YTL will offer.

Little bits and bytes have been streaming into our modems and telling us that YTL Comms — the Malaysian WiMAX no show — is working on something epic.

Sources deep inside YTL have revealed that the aspiring 4G conglomerate is will be bringing Android powered 4G mobile phones and 4G MiFi devices.

All this sounds exciting but looking at YTL’s many no shows in the past, we’re sceptical that they will be able to deliver the goods. A 4G mobile phone is a big ask, YTL will need a bucket load of coverage areas to pull this one off and assuming that YTL doesn’t have the coverage, they will have to work with a telco partner to make up for the 4G blindspots. And if we know the telco boys, they don’t play nice together, so it’s going to be interesting how YTL is going to do this nationwide mobile 4G network thing.

We’re not too sure bout the 4G mobile phone but we’re pretty excited about a 4G MiFi. We’re perplexed as to why P1 have yet to introduce one if the market. From our observations, there is a great deal of interest for such a device here. And it sure is a hell of a lot easier to sell then a WiMAX laptop.

Anyways, we’ll be keeping a close eye on YTL in the coming most, already the are on a huge hiring drive, so something is definitey a brewing. If they do pull this off, its going to be awesome for all of us, but that’s a big IF.

Two new WiMAX laptops from P1

P1 has quietly added two new notebooks into their WiMAX laptop line up, making the total of five WiMAX computers available in the market today from four manufacturers — talk about choice.

New to the P1 WiMAX laptop lineup are two notebooks from Asus and MSi respectively.

The new Asus K42F has a 14.1in display and runs an Intel core i3-370M with 320GB of storage and an unimpressive 2GB of RAM (DDR3) — we’d expect at least 4GB from Asus, a manufacturer that prides itself in providing good value at even better prices. As you’d expect, wireless connectivity comes in the form of Bluetooth and WiMAX + WiFi b/g/n. Don’t however expect to do any worthwhile gaming on this machine as it run on Intel’s built-in card. Though as a media PC the K42F comes packing a HDMI out and Altec Lansing speakers with SRS Premium sound technology as well a pretty attractive gloss finish. Asking price for the Asus, RM2,699.

The other new WiMAX notebook is the MSi FX400 also with a 14.1in screen. It runs on Intel Core i3-350 with 500GB of storage as the same 2GB DDR3 RAM. Again, we would like to see more RAM included into devices in this price range. The good thing about the MSi is it comes with an nVidia GeForce GT 325M graphics card with 1GB RAM. Bluetooth, WiMAX + WiFI b/g/n all comes as standard. The MSi goes for RM2,699. No guesses on which one offers the better value.

We had the opportunity to play with the MSi FX400 for a few days a coupole of months back and if we had to choose between the two, our money’s on the MSi.

The six months free P1 1NSiDE offer is still on for both devices. That means if you purchase any WiMAX notebook and activate your P1 account, you’ll get free six months P1 1NSiDE broadband for free. The P1 1NSiDE plan gives you 15GB data cap a month with no speed cap for RM89.

For more details click here.

Is P1 throttling YouTube?

Ok before all the P1 haters out there take out their pitchforks, we’re making it clear, we have no conclusive evidence but based on our own use of the service and from feedback we’ve been getting from other P1 users, the YouTube streaming has been choppy of late.

Everyone knows that with P1, when it’s good, its really good but when it’s crap, you can’t do jack online. But we can’t help but notice that we’re getting consistently slow streaming on YouTube when on the P1 network. It’s been happening almost all the time in the past couple of weeks.

We noticed that we had no problems whatsoever surfing almost every other sites and even downloading torrents is as smooth as butter. So is P1 throttling down YouTube streaming? It doesn’t make sense for them to, if they want to curb data hoggers and network abusers, then they should go straight for the throat and clamp down on torrent downloading.

But so far, it has been the other way around, we’ve been getting good download speeds but very bad streaming on YouTube. Anyone else going through the same thing? Comment us.

Maxis opens Twitter account to handle customer support

Taking a leaf from P1’s social media book, Maxis today launched a specific Twitter account to handle customer complaints and queries.

Launched today, the @MaxisListens account now has over 180 followers and follows 111 tweeple. In comparison, @P1Cares, arguably the country’s first Twitter account specifically created for customer support, has over 470 followers and is following over 451 people. Though, either accounts’ figures are nothing to shout about.

It is perceived that P1’s customer care Twitter account operates around the clock Maxis is quick to point out that its customer care specific Twitter account operates Mondays through Fridays from 9am to 6pm.

Although, Maxis is heading in the right direction by creating a channel that its customers are very comfortable with, it needs to understand that the rules of engagement are completely different from a traditional call centre environment. And limiting the service window to just weekdays and on standard working hours (9am – 6pm), Maxis might not fully understand how the social media space operates.

But having said that, it’s still early days for @MaxisListens and we hope that it’ll eventually extend its operating hours to weekends and around the clock.

P1 WiMAX new DX-230 modem, reduced 2.4Mbps plan pricing

P1 has introduced a new modem, the DX-230 which features 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 2x LAN ports and 2x phone ports. Design wise it looks more aesthetically pleasing as their current DV-230 has a separate WiFi module sticking out from the back.

We also noticed that the older DS-300 has been dropped from the website and the DV-230 is offered for its lower 400kbps package. With the DS-300 phased out, WiFi sharing is now standard on all P1′s desktop offering.

Existing users can purchase the new modem at RM399 at P1 P@ddock and P1tstop outlets.

Apart from the new modem, there’s also a revision of WiMAX pricing.

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YTL Comms to cover UTAR Kampar campus with 4G WiMAX

YTL Communications has signed a MoA (Memorandum of Agreement) with UTAR (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman) Kampar, Perak to offer in-campus WiMAX coverage. Similar to its announcement with UTM, Skudai in Johor, this will be the 2nd campus under YTL’s Education Partner Programme (EPP) which offers Free 4G WiMAX service of 300MB/month to university students. The Kampar campus has 12,000 students and it is believed that the programme with extend to other campuses as well.

YTL is one of the 4 WiMAX operators in Malaysia alongside P1, AMAX and RedTone. They believe in launching Malaysia’s first nationwide WiMAX service as oppose of other operator’s roll out in phases. While they have yet to launch WiMAX commercially, they have focused instead on university collaboration in these recent months. Nobody knows when they are going to launch as we foresee them failing to meet its coverage targets again.

We believe everybody is waiting for YTL’s hyped up WiMAX experience but sadly they haven’t delivered anything to date. We sincerely hope YTL can prove themselves capable of rolling out WiMAX else their 4G promise is nothing but hot air.

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Streamyx parody account on Twitter

Streamyx, the self-proclaimed #1 broadband provider in Malaysia, can really inspire the best out of Malaysians – the best irate customers that is.

We recently discovered this parody Twitter account taking pot shots at Streamyx and find the musings of its mysterious writer very funny. So much so that it’s worth a mention for you to have a look.

Lacking any social media presence whatsoever, we’re not going to expect Streamyx to respond to this or to the many other anti-fan Streamyx sites online. Streamyx is the only major broadband provider that doesn’t have any official social media presence, even newcomers like P1 have official representation in Facebook and Twitter.

They are quite a number of people out there who hate Streamyx with a passion capable of rivaling South American football fans. All you need to do it google “streamyx sucks” and you’ll see what we mean.

So where do you stand? Are you a Streamyx lover or hater? Hit us up with your comments!

REDtone WiMAX offers USB Plans, more coverage in East Malaysia

REDtone, another WiMAX operator has quietly launched its portable USB WiMAX offering. The portable USB WiMAX modem comes with 2 plans, the Flexi50 and Flexi80.

Flexi50 offers 512kbps download and 128kbps upload with 8GB quota at RM50/month, while Flexi88 offers 1Mbps download and 384kbps upload with 15GB quota at RM88/month. The packages looks similar with the recent P1 WiMAX Wiggy postpaid plans of WiGGY 59 and WiGGY 89.

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YTL launches Free 4G WiMAX service for public universities

YTL Communications, another 4G WiMAX operator in Malaysia has announced a Education Partner Program (EPP) for students. This program allows free internet access for 3 years per student with a quota of 300MB per month.

YTL has formed its first EPP partnership with UTM, Skudai in Johor and they plan to create more 4G Campus networks in all public universities by end of 2010. We all have heard promises of commercial launch which has yet to materialise. This could be YTL’s early test site for its 4G WiMAX network and at the same time use it as a showcase of what YTL can deliver.

However even if YTL manages to cover all public universities, they will still fall short of WiMAX deployment targets behind P1, AMAX and Redtone. After all the publicity stunts and PRs, we are still waiting to see YTL’s WiMAX to be launched commercially.

On the EPP plan, 300MB per month which calculates to 10.8GB for 3 years is barely enough for average student use. But who are we to complain if it is free? We wonder if YTL would come out with a paid student package for those who are serious about subscribing if the service is good.

If you’re studying at UTM Skudai, you can sign up here and do let us know your feedback.

You can check out photos from the EPP launch on their Facebook page.

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