Say yes, yes, yes to this W1GGY offer

Actually we’d rather not.

P1 just recently rehashed its W1GGY packages to introduce three new plans.

The difference?
Gone are the original W1GGY boasting (an elusive) 10Mbps download speed and the (very unfortunately named) W1GGY 69 plans. Taking it’s place are three new plans with price points of RM49, RM89 and RM129 monthly. Of the bat, you’ll notice that the new plans are cheaper (RM59 as opposed to RM69 and RM129 as opposed to RM149 previously). P1 have also made signing up very attractive as you don’t have to buy the W1GGY outright (which costs RM200 mind you), it is now provided to you for FREE and you’re not tied in to any contract, which means you can terminate any time you feel like it. P1 will even give you a RM50 rebate off your last bill if you return the W1GGY.

Is it any good?
When compared to what the other telcos are offering, it’s pretty much the same deal with the no contracts and free modems perks. Operators like Maxis even offer the same seven day satisfaction guarantee period like P1. P1’s strengths is in its generous data caps, but even with that we’re finding it very difficult to recommend the new W1GGY plans to mobile users.

And why not?
To us what’s important in any broadband plan is the performance and crucially, consistency. It’s pointless to have loads of data usage allowance if you can’t even get connected. We’re pretty sure many will agree with this. And therein lies the problem.

P1’s WiMAX network is not enjoying a lot of confidence from the public with frequent outages and connectivity issues – the word on the street is that P1’s network is plagued with problems at the moment. And the W1GGY is not really the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to mobile web surfing. Having tried the W1GGY ourselves, we’re very disappointed with what “Malaysia’s most advanced USB modem” had to offer.

Most glaring is the W1GGY’s inability to grab on to a WiMAX signal indoors. Most of the time, inside offices, malls and college lecture halls, we were not able to get any signal whatsoever. Outdoors, in areas where the W1GGY gets the same signal strength from two base stations, it easily gets very easily confused and often disconnects itself to jump between base stations. If you’re surfing video’s on YouTube or downloading files, this is a major pain.

We don’t know about you guys, but we would like our mobile broadband to be robust, reliable and with performance we can count on. We’d want to be able to just whip out the W1GGY, plug it into a USB port and start surfing.

Unfortunately, right now. We can really do that.