KT Freetel Bails out from U Mobile

Look who's calling the shots now

Looks like things can’t get any worse for Malaysia’s worse telco – U Mobile.

Got this feed from Bloomberg.

“KT Freetel Co. (032390 KS): The second-largest South Korean wireless service provider will sell a 16.5 percent stake in Malaysia’s U Mobile Sdn. for at least $100 million to avoid losses on its investment. KT Freetel will sell the 62.6 million shares to U Mobile’s major shareholder, it said. KT Freetel declined 1.1 percent to 26,550 won.”

Barely a year after the investment was finalised, KT Freetel will be selling off its stake in U Mobile to avoid losses.

In addition, NTT DoCoMo has shares in both KT Freetel and U Mobile, and if our experience serves us right, it won’t be long till the Japanese telco pulls out from U Mobile as well.

Maxis introduces FastTap NFC Service

You may have heard or seen NFC before. NFC, which is Near Field Communication is now available in Malaysia thanks to Maxis, called FastTap.

So what is NFC? Basically its like a Mobile ID/Wallet that works similarly like Touch n Go. Imagine, the ability to make retail purchase and pay using your mobile phone by tapping on a reader device. Same goes to LRT, where you can just tap your mobile phone on the entry/exit gate reader boards.

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Overpromising P1 Wiggy?

P1 Wiggy was launched with the tagline of being the fastest USB Broadband up to 10Mbps in the market. However some users are complaining that the 10 Mbps speed is hardly achievable and average speed hardly even reach half of the claimed speed. There’s a discussion at Lowyat.net where a user is complaining of the Wiggy being over promised and under delivered to its customers. P1 Wiggy was advertised of having downlink up to 10Mbps but average speed was only around 1.0-3.0Mbps. That is only 30% of the maximum speed claim.

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P1 W1MAX Wiggy plans & PC Fair Offer

The official pricing for the P1 Wiggy is finally here after much speculation earlier. In a nutshell, the Wiggy is P1 W1MAX’s entry in the mobile broadband arena that offers 10 Mbps. This is the fastest USB based broadband device compared to the other 3G HSDPA Players. Even AMAX’s USB offering is only 1 Mbps.

P1 Wiggy Plan

The Wiggy is priced at RM149/month and has a monthly data quota of 10GB. Minimum contract is 12 months. 

For first time registration, there’s an upfront payment of RM459  for cost of modem, registration fee and activation fee. The entry payment is quite steep for a mobile broadband package. P1 should have spread out the one time cost over the 12 months period to ease out the payment.  Total cost would be RM459 (one time) + RM1788 (subscription) = RM2247.

Since it is mobile with potential of higher speed up to 10Mbps, the Wiggy priced higher than its desktop DS 300 plan of RM99/month for 12 months. However the desktop DS 300 plan has double the data quota of 20GB. We believe that these 2 serve different purpose and obviously mobile usage are often less than what they would use at home or office. If you’re looking to download more and need the potential to share the connection over WiFi, the desktop DS 300 plans would be a better choice.  

PC Fair Promotion

This coming PC Fair, P1 is having a promotion on the Wiggy for the early adopters.

For the 12 month contract subscribers, the normal Wiggy plan rates apply but they will enjoy RM200 rebate on their first bill. This would make the total 12 month subscription cost RM2047.

However for those who subscribe for 24 months, P1 is giving out a FREE Acer Aspire One Netbook.

The one time upfront payment of RM459 still applies. However the subsequent payments are done via Credit Card 0% Interest Easy payment plan at RM149/month which is the same monthly subscription rate.  The Easy Payment Plan is only applicable for Maybank, OCBC, Citibank and Public Bank credit card holders only.  Total cost for this 24 month netbook bundle would be RM459 (one time) + RM3576 (subscription) = RM4035. 

Similar offerings

In the market right now, there are 2 similiar netbook + mobile broadband bundles to consider as well.

A) Maxis Broadband + Dell Mini
Maxis is the exclusive partner for Dell for the Dell Mini. It bundles for as low as RM89 for 24 months. However the bundle only comes with 6 months worth of broadband. Advertised speed goes up to 3.6Mbps on 3G HSDPA. Despite that, Maxis’s Dell Mini is the only all in one Mobile Broadband Netbook solution that does not require a USB device thanks to its built in 3G HSDPA Module. Monthly data quota is at 3GB per month.

B) AMAX USB + HP Mini 
AMAX offers the USB Plan with speeds of 1.0Mbps on its WiMAX network together with the HP Mini. The monthly price is at RM149/month for 24 months as well but it doesn’t come with any activation fee.  It is also noted that AMAX currently offers unlimited data usage for all plans.

The offering of these 2 plans are obtained pre-PC Fair and who knows that they might be giving a better deal this coming weekend.

Without a doubt, P1 Wiggy is creating some waves right now with its 10Mbps download speed and netbook bundling plan. However we find that the upfront payment is unattractive and the claim of 10Mbps is still in doubt. What is more important is the average speed that user would get on average. It would be interesting to see the reaction from current mobile broadband players such as DiGi, Maxis, Celcom and AMAX in the next few days.

For more details, visit the P1 Wiggy site.

Maxis starts pre-booking of Blackberry Storm

Apart from Celcom, Maxis is also offering the Blackberry Storm and have just revealed more details on the Maxis website.

For early birds, the first 300 Maxis customers who pre-book shall receive a Blackberry Leather Holster, Charging Pod and a Jabra Bluetooth headset. As a comparison, Celcom offers a mini Blackberry Battery Charger, Battery and Skin worth RM638 to those who pre-book on their site, however they didn’t how many sets are to be given out.

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P1 W1MAX Wiggy Photos!

Update : P1 Wiggy comes in 1 plan with speeds up to 10 Mbps. Pricing expected to be around RM130 to RM160 a month with 1 or 2 years contract. It is also speculated that the wiggy modem would be free for 2 years contract as offered in current ds300 plans.

Update 2: There is a netbook bundling with the P1 Wiggy. Most likely FREE with 2 years contract.

Update 3: Official pricing out now! Free Acer Aspire One Netbook at PC Fair.

As posted earlier, P1 is about to launch the USB offering of its P1 W1MAX, called the Wiggy.

For those who wish to be teased further, read on.

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P1 W1MAX flashes its USB wiggy ahead of PC Fair

P1 has released a teaser that seems to be a USB WiMAX dongle that is expected to be released around this time of the year.

The dongle is called the Wiggy which is a unique identifier for its USB product and this will give more expected mobility for P1 W1MAX. So far, P1 is only available on its bulky DS-300 Modem.

The teaser site has a countdown counter and the timing of the launch is coincidently on the same time as PC Fair. This is something really to look forward to this coming weekend.

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P1 W1MAX launched officially in Penang

P1, one of Malaysia’s WiMAX 4 operators has been officially launched in Penang by Chief Minister YAB Lim Guan Eng. The official  flagship outlet is called P1tstop and it is located at Bay Avenue, Lorong Bayan Indah Satu. 

From what we understand, this is the 3rd WiMAX rollout by P1 outside Klang Valley after Johor Bahru and Alor Setar. However this is consider the 1st large scale WiMAX roll out outside the Klang Valley for P1.

 In Penang,  P1 W1MAX covers Georgetown, Gurney Drive, Jalan Burma, Jalan Kebun Bunga, Jalan Free School, and Pengkalan Weld as well as key areas on the state’s mainland including Butterworth, Kampung Jawa, Kampung Perlis, and Kampung Bengali. In the next few months, P1 targets to set up 50 WiMAX sites across Penang.

This is quite an achievement for a WiMAX provider that has just launched for about 8 months. At the rate they roll out, the 35% population coverage target within this year could be within reach. 

[ SOURCE ]

TM Get Real – Talk & Save for Streamyx Users

Streamyx users who talk a lot are now offered a sweet deal by TM. From now till 30th June 2009,  Streamyx users can enjoy unlimited calls to nationwide fixed lines and a flat rate of 30sen/min for an extra RM10/month. As an extra bonus, TM also is throwing in a DECT Cordless phone for FREE.

If you spend hours on the phone calling your love ones, this would be great add-on for the promotional period. Head to your nearest TMpoint or dealers for more information.

[ SOURCE ]

Celcom’s BlackBerry Storm teaser slings a shot on iPhone 3G

The Storm is really coming and Celcom has started its pre-launch teaser campaign on its site. Now you can pre-book your BlackBerry Storm, the Ultimate all-in-one messaging and multimedia device from Celcom.

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