I’ve always looked at alternatives to Streamyx for my internet connection. Not that I despise TMNET but just because of the fact that their service way below par! I’m sure many Malaysian broadband users would attest to this. I had the opportunity to try out Maxis, Digi and P1WIMAX and I think I can share some of my experiences here.

Maxis Broadband

This is the first option I tried. Well, I opted to get their HSDPA modem which theoretically can offer data speeds up to 7.2MBps. I should say that my expectations were pretty high. But then, I realized that I could only get EDGE speeds. Excruciatingly slow speed on a HSDPA modem. I tried tweeting about the problem to @maxiscomms and after a few attempts I managed to get a response from them. From that point onwards, the technical team got in touch with me through email and asked me to send them a snapshot of the connection status on the diagnostics tool. After a day of waiting I was told that my area did not have a good coverage for 3G and there were no immediate plans to improve it as well. So I had to terminate my contract and move on.

Here’s a roundup of the plans available from Maxis broadband:

P1WIMAX

I was actually hoping that P1WIMAX would be the right plan for me. First of all, it offers the best value for money – The 20GB plan is just RM 99 per month. The speed was a little bit inconsistent. I was told by their technical support that from the 10th floor onwards they only offer speeds on a best effort basis. Fair enough that this was told upfront. Best thing about them, they have a 7 day trial period. That is so awesome! I was really sad to return their modem on the 6th day but then I did give them a chance. Their customer service is absolutely great and they are really responsive on twitter too. You should follow @p1wimax and get more details.

Here is a roundup of the plans that they offer:

Digi Broadband

Finally I decided to give Digi broadband a try. I must say that I did not have high expectations at all. But you know what? Their service surpassed my expectations. Initially I was told to try the prepaid internet plan. Of course, the speed is capped at 384Kbps but I was getting around 300Kbps consistently! And the connection status was full coverage for HSDPA! So I decided to go for the postpaid plan and signed up for their 10GB plan. Here is a snapshot of the speed I normally get.

Not too bad that I can get around 700Kbps on an average. Their data plans are pretty competitive as well. And not to mention their support on Twitter – excellent. Follow @DiGi_Telco for any support issues or updates. I am hoping that their service level remains the same throughout the tenure of my contract. So for now, I’m sticking with Digi!

So unless Digi really screws up, I’m not even going to think of Streamyx for now. Maybe Unifi next year, but not Streamyx!

Today I was reading an article on The Star titled “Internet users upset over Govt’s filter attempt“. Wow, we always seem to take 2 steps backward for every baby step we take forward. Nice one.

Here is what the report says:

Online and wire agency reports that the Government is mulling an Internet filtering system similar to China’s controversial “Green Dam” project has got the local online community in a huff, while technology experts questioned the viability of the project.

Basically the government wants to implement a system that would block “undesirable websites”. I wonder what would they consider as undesirable. Given the immense popularity of the internet media, I doubt this would go down well with the general public.

The report also mentions that the Information, Communication and Culture Ministry also plans to “secure direct control over the content and monitoring division of Malaysia’s Internet regulator, Reuters quoted a source as saying”. So what this essentially means is that the ministry would effectively know every single move you make on the internet. Instead of making such a drastic move, why can’t the government actually educate people on the harms and ill effects of those “undesirable websites”? After all, every person has the right to make a choice! Are we such immature people that we cannot think for ourselves and our government has to treat us like school children?

Ok let’s say the system does have its merit and is in place, I’m very sure that the situation is going to actually become worse. First of all our “super fast” internet is just going to become worse with all the backend monitoring of data to and fro the servers. Instead of improving the services, the system is actually going to deteriorate it. Not only that, I wouldn’t be surprised if the legitimately good websites are blocked instead of “undesirable websites” – such is the efficiency of any system in Malaysia. Imagine not being able to surf wikipedia but some XXX site instead? That would be hilarious. But not far from reality though.

Shouldn’t the internet medium be uncensored and open? I wonder if blogs with criticisms against the government would be shut down or censored. Blogging has become such a powerful tool that such an action would only backfire if not anything else. There are so many internet filtering software around that users can actually install on their PCs if they are worried about their children surfing porn or other undesirable websites. But this is a choice that people should be allowed to make and not forced down their throat.

In my opinion, this will never work. People are going to be really vocal about this and the government is going to become unpopular with this action. After all, Malaysians are now getting exposed to the latest technology available and almost every single person has a blog, twitter account and a facebook account. Not to mention the numerous chatrooms available as well. This is probably going to be another futile attempt at trying to shut people up which is definitely not going to work. What are your thoughts?

This post was prompted by a comment I received for my previous post titled How crappy is Streamyx?. Here is the comment I received:

helo all streamyx customer…..

Always read customer write down the complain in blog and to much talking about suck TM because it’s very slow connection and sometime failed to connect. For me its very general situation. Malaysian people always talk too much but nothing and me too but this issue is compatible. U just make straight complain to TM and don’t simply to inform all the world. If u not intrested with TM product just leave it and do not subcribed. One more thing, If u think u are the best so u can build your personal network and personal dslam and personal server. If cannot dont talk too much. very funny.

Although I appreciate the comment on my post, I beg to differ with the commentator. In his eyes he believes that we should be thankful for what we have and not bother to voice out our opinions? Why not? I cannot count the number of times I have actually complained to TM about their service and still there is no response. At least in Penang we have PenangFON which is an alternative but what about other regions? What about rural areas? Do they have a choice?

All these issues stem from one basic issue – our tolerance towards mediocrity! Why do we actually have to put up with this? After all, we are paying for this service and not getting it free! When a service provider promises something, I expect it to be provided no matter what! As we are moving towards a developed nation status, these are the kind of roadblocks which would actually hinder the development of a country. In the age of telecommuting and K-economy how can we afford to have such hiccups? I hope that there will soon be a revamp of our infrastructure which will be beneficial to Malaysians. I hope that one day I will be able to use the internet to video conference with my clients for just an hour without any lag or disturbance! Do you have your own thoughts to share?

I guess you can realize that this blog post title is a result of my frustration with Malaysia’s biggest ISP – Streamyx! Due to the nature of my work, I need a stable internet connection and currently I have both Streamyx and PenangFON installed at home. Luckily I live in Penang and my apartment is serviced by PenangFON. Even though my PenangFON connection is a 2MB/s connection and my Streamyx is a 1MB/s connection, I decided to run this experiment to actually get an idea of how crappy Streamyx actually is!

Well I headed to Speedtest which is one of the most famous websites to test the speed of your ISP. I have attached the results below:

STREAMYX

PenangFON

The test was done at 9.45PM which is pretty much the peak hour here from my experience. Note the huge difference between the download and upload speeds of Streamyx and PenangFON. Even though I’ve subscribed to a 2MB/s package with PenangFON (which is actually cheaper than Streamyx’s 1MB/s package) I didn’t expect such a big difference.

Streamyx
Download Speed: 0.73 Mb/s
Upload Speed: 0.42 Mb/s

PenangFON
Download Speed: 4.63 Mb/s
Upload Speed: 16.24 Mb/s

So you be the judge – How crappy is Streamyx? Why are Malaysians shortchanged?

Finally some good news to all of DiGi’s loyal fans – DiGi broadband has finally been rolled out. Their tagline has been “better speed for less”. Well that’s what everyone claims but I’m yet to see anyone prove it to me yet. I think a lot has been said and complained about how unreliable is Maxis’ mobile broadband (I own one but I have hardly used it). DiGi claims that their broadband plans are flexible and you could choose one according to your needs for as low as RM 2 per day. Lets look at their plans in detail.

There are 3 different packages offered by DiGi.

1. Discover

This is the entry level package for light users. The plan allows usage of up to 3GB and any additional usage is charged RM 0.15/10MB. Maximum usage is capped at RM 138.

2. Explore

This is the mid range package for pretty much the majority of us. The plan allows usage of up to 10GB and any additional usage is charged RM 0.05/10MB. Maximum usage is capped at RM 138.

3. Extreme

This package is really for heavy users. If you’re online mostly to download music, videos etc. then this package is for you. The plan allows usage of up to 20GB and that’s it. You can’t use more than that even if you want to.

Funny thing is the maximum cap on the usage. Don’t they trust Malaysians to pay their bills? Or maybe this is their tactic to avoid getting a deposit from us in the first place. Both the Discover and Explore packages promise an average (I’m sure that’s on a “best effort” basis) of 700kbps for downloads and 200kbps for downloads. The Extreme package offers an average of 2Mbps for downloads and 1Mbps for uploads. Nice!

Of course the HSPA modems which you will need to use this service costs extra. DiGi recommends Broadband E219 HSDPA USB Modem for the Discover and Explore packages while the Broadband E230 HSPA USB Modem is recommended for the Extreme package. The E219 modem will cost you RM 30/month for 12 months while the E230 will cost you RM 50/month for 12 months. These charges will be reflected in your monthly bill.

Now what I like about the DiGi website is that they have made my life much easier by putting in a comparison chart of the different major broadband services available in Malaysia (Streamyx, Maxis, Celcom and P1). Each package has its comparison chart as shown below.

Discover package comparison chart :

Explore package comparison chart :

Extreme package comparison chart :

DiGi’s plans seem pretty reasonable when compared to the others. What needs to be seen is if the data connection is fast and reliable as they claim. The coverage is not extensive yet but there is a tool on their website to check if your area is covered. There is also a plan recommender in case you are not sure which package to choose.

One last thing before I sign off – I’m amused by the mascot that they have chosen to promote their broadband service. Agreed that they picture shows a tortoise coming out of its shell but still how fast can the turtle go? A tortoise’s shell is also used as a defense mechanism, so do they imply they are prone to hacker or virus attacks? Not sure if choosing the tortoise was the right thing to do as it is the first thing that greets you in their broadband homepage. In my opinion DiGi certainly could have chosen a better mascot for their marketing – something like a cheetah, road runner, speedy gonzales etc. Well that’s something trivial but I thought I’d bring it up since we’re analyzing DiGi anyway.

If you would like to share your experience with DiGi’s service or any other broadband services I’d love to hear them in the comments section.

More information can be found at DiGi Broadband.

It was certainly heartening to hear that the mini budget announced by our DPM will also allocate RM 5.4B for improving the broadband infrastructure in Malaysia. The country’s broadband infrastructure is definitely in need of improvement to match other developing countries in this region. Not only is the service below par but the monthly charges are absurd as well. The stimulus in the budget can certainly be seen as a boost for broadband in Malaysia.

According to David Wong who is the chairman of the Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom), this move would help to achieve the Government’s 50% broadband penetration rate target by the end of 2010. Currently the broadband penetration in Malaysia is only 17.5% which is a small percentage considering the size of the country. Compare that with a broadband penetration of 30.4% in 2008 in Taiwan and you can see a big difference. According to Wong, RM 3B will be used to roll out the High Speed Broadband (HSBB) service to the entire nation at a faster rate.

The money will be used to improve connection speeds of 2Mbps to 1Gbps which is quite decent. So where does the other RM 2.4B go to? That will be provided to the SKMM to facilitate broadband community centres and provision of basic telephony services in rural areas.

Let us hope with these plans in place the state of our broadband services in Malaysia will be improved. We definitely need to see some big improvement in the areas of stability of connection and connection speeds too. Once these have been worked on, then the service providers will need to charge the consumers a reasonable rate and not an exorbitant price as it is currently being done. Maybe a few more players in the broadband field would straighten things out with some healthy competition? What’s your say?

UPDATE: Here’s a list of internet providers in Malaysia. How many of them are you actually aware of? What kind of competition do they provide to Streamyx? (Source TheDaneshProject)

My pick is PenangFON – 2MB/s at RM 66/month RM 60/month. I just need to remember to pay my bills!

1. eBulding – http://www.eb.net.my/
2. Airzed – http://www.airzed.com/
3. Arcnet NTT MSC Sdn Bhd – http://www.arc.net.my/
4. Atlas One Broadband Internet Provider – http://www.atlasone.net/
5. Biz Surf – Broadband Internet services – http://www.bizsurf.com/
6. Celcom – http://www.celcom.net.my/
7. Digi – http://www.digi.com.my
8. Giga Broadband VDSL – http://www.vdslnetwork.com/
9. Gold Information Systems Wireless broadband provider – http://www.gissb.com/
10. iDiGi Internet Services – http://www.idigi.com.my/
11. iZZi – Mobile wireless broadband, iBurst – http://www.izzi.com.my/
12. Jaring - http://www.jaring.my/
13. Maxis Broadband – http://www.maxis.net.my/
14. Metro FON – http://www.metrofon.com.my/
15. NasionCom – http://www.nasioncom.com.my/
16. Penang FON – http://www.penangfon.com/
17. PutraNet – http://www.putra.net.my/
18. Time Net – http://www.time.com.my/
19. Time Broadband – http://timebroadband.time.net.my/
20. TMnet – http://tm.net.my/
21. TMnet Streamyx – http://isp.tm.net.my/streamyx/
22. Webbit – Time Wireless Broadband – http://timebroadband.time.net.my/webbit/
23. ZapZone Wireless Hotspot – http://www.zapzone.com.my/
24. Netlynx by TIME dotCom Berhad – http://www.netlynx.net.my/

25. P1WiMAX – http://www.p1.com.my
26. InfoLient – http://www.infolient.com

27. Amax – http://www.amax.my

Mobile Broadband and WiMax are also included in the list.