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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Underperforming WiMAX operators to be fined. Where have we heard this before?

BERNAMA reports that the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Comission (SKMM) is monitoring three WIMAX operators for not meeting their respective coverage targets.

The report said that all three have failed to achieve the 25 percent targetted market penetration.

Deputy Minister of Information Communication and Culture Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum said from March 2008 to March 2009, the three companies had failed to achieve the target and can be fined.

He added that the government was ready to withdraw the licences of companies that failed to deliver the target, including Asiaspace Sdn Bhd.

So far nothing has happened.

He also said that athough the target has not been met, all four companies have shown an improved performance since March 2009.

We’re not sure what he means by “all four have shown improved performance” because it has been over a year since March 2009 and YTL still have not managed to convince the public that they indeed have a WiMAX network up and running. AMAX and REDtone are not fairing too well either with very limited coverage and a relatively small subscriber base.

But it seems like we’ve heard all this before. Those with long memories will recall that MCMC had alledgedly issued fines to the same operators for the exact same reason. The only difference is that the statement was made October 2009.

In October, 2009 The Star reported that SKMM issued letters on the fines to YTL e-Solutions (RM1.9mil), AsiaSpace (RM1.7mil), REDtone International (RM200,000) for failure to meet the 25% population coverage by the end of March but the operators have all made appeals against the fines.

We’re not sure if much has changed since then and the only WiMAX operator that’s really moving forward is P1; even then we’re seeing them being plagued with a very unstable network.

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REDtone WiMAX in Sabah and Sarawak Revisited

In Peninsular Malaysia, we’re already familar with P1 WiMAX, AMAX and the yet to appear YTL Comms when it comes to WiMAX. Over the East Malaysia, there’s one player called REDtone WiMAX which not many people have heard of.

We’ve blogged before when REDtone was launched and their offering was the most expensive among all the WiMAX players with RM138/month for a mere 1Mbps connectivity. This could be due to less competition or perhaps higher cost of set up in East Malaysia compared to Peninsular.

Now, REDtone has revised its rates to make it more attractive by offering FREE WiMAX CPE Modem Rental and FREE Activation fee until 31st May 2010. Their rates have been revised as well from as low as RM98/month for 1Mbps.

• HomeLite 1Mbps
  RM98/month with 25GB Usage
• HomePro 2Mbps
  RM188/month with 45GB Usage
  
• Office Basic 1Mbps
  RM138/month with Unlimited Usage
  
• Office Basic 2Mbps
  RM260/month with Unlimited Usage
• Office BiZLite 1Mbps
  RM250/month with Unlimited Usage and Fixed IP
• Office BiZLite 2Mbps
  RM480/month with Unlimited Usage and Fixed IP

More details of their plans & terms here.

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REDtone Broadband WiMAX Promo

REDTone Broadband, a WiMAX operator that focus on Sabah/Sarawak has a new promotion for its WiMAX packages.

Until 31st August 2009, REDtone offers FREE WiMAX CPE Rental of RM25/month for new subscribers. In addition, the RM100 Activation fee is waived as well. REDTone Broadband is still giving a 14 days Money back guarantee.

The monthly WiMAX subscription fees are still maintained with the lowest entry of 1Mbps going for RM138/month.

More details here.

P1 WiMAX available at Pahang, Perak & Terengganu, now eyes East Malaysia

P1 W1MAX, one of the key 4 WiMAX operator has started operations in Pahang, Perak & Terengganu recently which brings its coverage up to a total of  8 states (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Kedah, Penang, Pahang, Perak & Terengganu). This is quite an achievement for a company that is barely a year in operations. It is also expected that P1 will achieve to cover 35% of the population by end of this year.

While P1 has been busy in West Malaysia, it also has shown interested in venturing to East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak.  However this optimistic move would require consent from MCMC as Redtone is the sole WiMAX operator in Sabah/Sarawak at the moment. We foresee if Redtone isn’t able to meet coverage expectations, MCMC would be forced to open up East Malaysia to other WiMAX operators to get the job done.

Hopefully with P1 knocking on MCMC’s door to enter Sabah/Sarawak, Redtone would be pressured to speed up desired coverage.

Related Links
Sarawak to get P1 WiMAX next year
WiMAX firm awaits MCMC Nod
P1 WiMAX

REDtone WiMAX Broadband Plans

REDtone is one of the 4 WiMAX licensed operators in Malaysia. While P1, AMAX & YTL focuses in West Malaysia, REDtone is focused in East Malaysia.

August last year, they have officially launched in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah but they have yet to made any commercial availability to the market.

As reported earlier, they began to focus in Kuching, Sarawak. Now they have started to push their WiMAX aggressively with 5 WiMAX Plans from as low as RM138/month.

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REDtone to roll out WiMAX in Sarawak soon?

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.

Official Malaysia WiMAX Roll out next week!

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