According to sources close to us, REDtone, one of the four WiMAX players in Malaysia would be launched officially in Kuching, Sarawak  pretty soon. 

For those who haven’t heard, Redtone is the only WiMAX licensee to start rolling out in East Malaysia. It was the 2nd WiMAX operator to launch shortly after P1 in August 2008. Branded as REDtone WiMAX, it initially covers Kota Kinabalu, Sabah but we have yet to hear any buzz from them.

Apparently the offering in Kuching is said to be from RM138/month and equipment would be using Motorola‘s WiMAX range.

Watch this space as we will try to update once we receive confirmed intel.

In the news however, it was reported that REDtone is spending RM20 million this year for WiMAX coverage. Apparently they claim to have WiMAX coverage at Kota Kinabalu and Kuching already. Now they are looking at covering Tawau & Miri.

We would like to see REDtone to launch their services fully and reach out to fill the broadband gap in Sabah and Sarawak immediately.

	Players on the Field, REDTone, Rumour Mill, WiMAX
	REDtone Roll out, REDtone WiMAX, REDtone WiMAX Coverage, WiMAX Sabah, WiMAX Sarawak

WiMAX is officially available in Malaysia next week! We will be witnessing not just one, but TWO WiMAX operators rolling out their services in the country.

Packet 1 will be having their official launch on next Tuesday August 19th in Kuala Lumpur while another operator REDtone will be launching theirs on the next day August 20th in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Both operators will be launching at different ends in the country and its obvious that the two won’t be competiting heads-on in the same market segments for now. We are unsure on the reason behind such roll out strategy but both would have different challenges to face.

What to expect?

P1 W1MAX by Packet 1 has been showcased to the public several times namely at WCIT and the recent PC Fair. We are aware that they have a working LAN based WiMAX modem and initial feedbacks we seen have been encouraging.

Before this, Packet 1 has been actively promoting its trial programme and recently it has also mentioned that Packet 1 managed to sign up its first subscribers. This not only incidates that Packet 1′s W1MAX is ready for service but it also marks as Malaysia’s 1st ever WiMAX subscription in the country.  At present time, we are still unsure of their current coverage areas and we hope to find out soon during the launch.

It is rumoured that P1 W1MAX would be available at 4 packages with competiting speed offerings with different price ranges. Their biggest competitor would be Streamyx at the moment and judging on evaluations we’ve seen, the performance of P1 W1MAX is something existing Streamyx users would look forward to.

As for REDtone, they have not given any clues on their WiMAX devices or offerings. There was nothing tangible to date and we are interested to see what sort of devices and packages available for subscription during launch in Sabah.

After much hype in the press, 2 operators have finally came out to launch officially in the market. The other 2 WiMAX operators, YTL and AsiaSpace have yet to make announcement on their commercial services to date.

Watch this space for more updates!

Related Links
REDtone to roll out WiMAX by month end
P1 W1MAX
LiewCF’s WiMAX Experience at PC Fair

	P1, Players on the Field, REDTone, WiMAX
	Broadband, Internet, Malaysia WiMAX, Official Launch, P1, P1 WiMAX, REDTone, sabah, WiMAX, Wireless