Update (1800hrs 23122010): P1 has updated the information on their website to include the newly launched MF230 MiFi device. Find out more after the jump.

A while ago, P1′s CEO, Micheal Lai teased everyone with the prospect of P1 coming out with a 4G MiFi. This was two months ago and he claims that the P1 MiFi “works wonderfully well while others fail“.

We like MiFis and it’s nice to know that there will soon be another type to choose from. Though it’s rather ironic that P1 was amongst one of the first (if not the first) operator to have hinted that they were going to market a MiFi device but are now the last of come into the market with one but as the saying goes, better late than never.

So here it is, the MF230 MiFi device from P1 and currently you can only get it from Harvey Norman.

Reliable sources reveal that in terms of pricing, the device itself cost RM250 but you’ll have to purchase it with a plan. The plan that comes with the 10GB data usage a month with download speeds up to 1.5Mbps at RM89/month. As an introductory offer, P1 is giving first month subscription free and you only pay RM44/month for the 2nd and 3rd month. Essentially the plan is the same as the one offered with the P1 W1GGY.

In terms of device performance, you can connect five devices simultaneously to the the MF230 and Green Packet claims that the battery lasts up to four hours “active-usage“. In terms of range, the FAQ states that you get 20 meter connectivity range indoor and 35 meters outdoors.

The P1 MF230 is produced by its parent company Green Packet, you can check out the specifications here. Unlike P1 devices previously the MF230 is branded Green Packet rather than P1 which can confuse some customer we think.

No details available on P1′s website yet but we’ll keep you posted if there’s any. P1′s website is updated with info on the MF230 and we’ve poured through the FAQ to understand the plan, head on over to after the jump to see what we’ve discovered.

Read the rest of this entry »

	P1, Players on the Field, Technologies, WiMAX
	4G MiFi, 4g wimax, MF 230, michael lai, mifi, P1, P1 4G, P1 MiFi, P1 WiMAX, Pocket WiFi, WiMAX, WiMAX Router, WiMAX WiFi Router

UPDATE (110717) : Broadband Pricing Comparison in Malaysia updated for 2011! Check out the latest update here.

UPDATE (101130 2100) : Broadband Pricing Comparison in Malaysia updated with Maxis iPad Plans.

UPDATE (101120 1230) : Broadband Pricing Comparison in Malaysia now with Yes data pricing including rebates.

Recently after the appearance of yes 4G rates, everybody gets cost conscious all of a sudden about Broadband pricing. Some had quickly mentioned that yes 9 sen/3MB ain’t cheap with some pointing out that it costs RM900 for their average 30GB of download usage.

Since cost per GB is a hot topic now, we figured why don’t we compare all broadband offerings in Malaysia and find out how much they cost per GB. Below is our findings ranking from the cheapest to the most expensive.

Cost per GB

NOTE: So far we only considered plans either postpaid or prepaid that offer monthly access. Also added are the standard PAYU (Pay as you go) rates which includes yes and Tune Talk. There are different policies and terms for each plans with some only calculating download quota while others include uploads. There are also other factors to consider such as download speeds and excess charge if you exceed Fair Usage Policy. Streamyx ADSL was excluded due to the fact that they offer “unlimited access” with unspecified quota on a best effort basis.

We do admit that it is unfair to compare cost per GB across the board as there’s an obvious differentiator when it comes to application. In general, obviously fixed broadband is cheaper per GB but it compromises on mobility which often comes at a higher cost. To make it clearer, we have segregate the broadband offerings into 3 categories: Fixed Broadband, Mobile Broadband (Pure Data) and Mobile Internet (Add-on for Phone). Check out the other 3 tables in detail after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

	Celcom, DiGi, Industry in General, Maxis, P1, Players on the Field, Streamyx, TM, TuneTalk, U Mobile, UniFi, Yes
	Broadband Comparison, Broadband Price, Celcom, Celcom Broadband, Comparison, Malaysia, Malaysia Broadband, Malaysia Broadband Comparison, Malaysia Broadband Price, Malaysia Broadband Rates, Malaysia cost per GB, Malaysia Internet Rates, Maxis, Maxis Broadband, mobile broadband, P1 4G, P1 WiMAX, streamyx, TM, Tune Talk, U Mobile, U Mobile Broadband, Unifi, yes 4g

P1 has done a revamp on its WiGGY packages featuring the new UH Shuttle modem. Last week the UH Shuttle modem was offered for its Super Broadband package but now it is also offered on its own.

NEW

In the new revamp, the UH Shuttle Modem is bundled together with the RM89 and RM129 subscription plans while the lower RM59 plan gets the old WiGGY. To sweeten the deal, they are also giving 50% off for 2 months subscriptions which is only valid for RM89 and RM129 subscription.

OLD

Compared to the old WiGGY Plans, the new offering has less data quota than before while the speed is pretty much the same. The RM59 plan is 2GB less while higher 2 plans with the new UH Modem are getting 5GB less monthly. If you’re an existing WiGGY customer, it is better to stick to your current plan.

More details of the new WiGGY packages here.

	P1, Players on the Field, Technologies, WiMAX
	4g, 4g wimax, P1, P1 4G, P1 4G Super Broadband, P1 w1max, p1 wiggy, P1 WiMAX, Super Broadband, UH Shuttle, USB WiMAX Modem, W1GGY

P1 4G has released its TV Commercials for its new campaign claiming Strong, Faster & Wider. Currently they are currently pushing on their Super Broadband Package
that offers shared usage over a combination of home and USB modem
.

The kids in the ad are cute and all but we the find the ad pointless. They are selling the illusion of speed with no tangible indication of the level of performance that P1 intends to offer. Check out the video after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

	P1, Players on the Field, TVC, Video
	4g wimax, P1, P1 4G, P1 TVC, P1 WiMAX, TVC, Video, WiMAX

P1 has added a new modem into their Super Broadband Package. The UH Shuttle modem is a new add-on option for RM30/month which they claims to be more powerful than the old WiGGY.

Looking at the design, it looks more bulky than the old one making it more cumbersome to use. For extra RM10 over the older WiGGY, we simply can’t see the benefit of paying more. P1′s coverage out of home isn’t that great and we are not convinced if this new modem would solve coverage and mobility issues that we faced previously.

As mentioned before, why can’t they offer outright purchase of the modem instead of charging customers monthly to utilise existing bandwidth? Check out the full details of the add-on package at P1′s site.

You can read up more technical info on the new modem here.

	P1, Players on the Field
	4g, 4g wimax, P1, P1 4G, P1 4G Super Broadband, P1 w1max, p1 wiggy, P1 WiMAX, Super Broadband, UH Shuttle, USB WiMAX Modem, W1GGY

P1 now known as P1 4G has officially reveal its Super Broadband Package. This comes right after ITU announced the “real” 4G standards which doesn’t exist at the moment. So what’s so super about this new broadband package? Do you get more data? More speed? Extra coverage? All that super hero action is sadly nothing to shout out. There isn’t any MiFi revealed as teased by its CEO recently.

Read the rest of this entry »

	P1, Players on the Field, Technologies, WiMAX
	4g, 4g wimax, P1, P1 4G, P1 4G Super Broadband, P1 w1max, p1 wiggy, P1 WiMAX, Super Broadband, W1GGY

P1 claims that its network is now “stronger, wider and faster” and the operator has developed a new advertising campaign to shout this from the proverbial rooftop.

In conjunction with new advertising campaign the WiMAX operator has also introduced a new Super Broadband package with Super Quota allowing customers to share monthly data cap across two devices. This means if you’re currently signed on to P1′s home plan with a data cap of 10GB per month, you can use that data cap with P1′s portable WiMAX dongle as well.

Effectively you have one plan with one data cap but two devices that you can use it on. Sounds interesting but this Super Broadband plan comes with an additional charge of RM20 per month with no additional data added on. That means you’re paying RM20 just for the option to use the data cap across devices, which is terrible marketing if you ask us. Who’d want to pay an additional RM20 per month just so you can use your data cap on another device.

We don’t mind a one time fee, or if P1 still insists on a monthly fee for the option, then add on another 5GB while you’re at it. Sorry P1, you can add all the super you want in front of everything but to us, this is a nonsense plan.

At the same time P1 has also announce that it doesn’t like to be called P1 W1MAX and wants to be referred to as P1 4G. P1 CEO Michael Lai was quoted saying in a press release made available to use that “WiMAX is a 4G technology and we are the leading player in the 4G broadband space. We will always provide our users with the best connectivity using the best 4G technology available but that technology may not always be WiMAX”

This is shocking considering he has always been a strong supporter of WiMAX and has been known to say “we (P1) live and die with WiMAX“.

In any case, as users of the P1 service we haven’t felt any noticeable improvements in terms of network performance and stability. In fact, it has been the other way around with the occurrence of isolated outages being more frequent than ever before. Let’s not even start with the indifferent customer service attitude.

So it makes you wonder whether this “stronger, wider, faster” thing that P1 is talking about is all smoke and mirrors.

What do you think? If you’re a P1 subscriber, how has the service been of late.

[picture credit]

	P1, Players on the Field
	P1, P1 4G, P1 w1max, P1 WiMAX

P1 WiMAX’s CEO Michael Lai has given a small teaser on an upcoming 4G WiMAX MiFi device via twitter.

He doesn’t reveal much on the device but it could possibly be the same Infomark MiFi device shown earlier or GreenPacket’s own WiMAX-WiFi router. We would believe it is more likely the latter as shown below.

With YTL’s imminent launch sometime next month, P1 would need to brace themselves for a new competitor in the WiMAX space. It was earlier mentioned that YTL is coming out with its own 4G Mobile Phone and MiFi device during launch.

While P1 claims its MiFi device is superior than others, we wonder which other MiFi did they use for comparison. From our last test, P1 WiMAX does not support seamless connectivity which hampers true mobility. We’ve tried a couple of MiFi devices including 3G pocket WiFi routers and even Android WiFi tethering with no issues at all.

As usual, no mention of release and we can’t tell whether it is gonna be launched at all.

[ SOURCE ]

	P1, Players on the Field, Rumour Mill, Technologies, WiMAX
	4G MiFi, 4g wimax, michael lai, mifi, P1, P1 WiMAX, Pocket WiFi, WiMAX, WiMAX Router, WiMAX WiFi Router

Another update on 4G LTE in Malaysia. The Star reports that majority of the earlier mentioned 9 companies have been informed via fax that they have been allocated the 2.6GHz spectrum for 4G LTE use. This will only take effect on 1st January 2013 which is a long way to go, and time is something that the players need to roll out commercially. As mentioned earlier, the 9 companies are Maxis, DiGi, Celcom, U Mobile, P1, AMAX, YTL, REDtone and a new comer. Each of them will be getting 20MHz block of the spectrum.

2 years should give the players sufficient head start to evaluate vendors, conduct trials and plan out their coverage expansion. By 2013, we should have more 4G LTE devices in the market. Hopefully better than the Samsung Craft, the first 4G LTE phone.

[ SOURCE ]

	AMAX, Celcom, DiGi, Industry in General, LTE, Maxis, P1, Players on the Field, REDTone, Technologies, U Mobile, Yes
	3G, 4g, 4G LTE, 4G LTE Malaysia, 4G Malaysia, 4g wimax, amax, asiaspace, Celcom, Celcom Axiata, DiGi, Long Term Evolution, lte, LTE Malaysia, Maxis, P1, P1 WiMAX, REDTone, REDtone WiMAX, U Mobile, WiMAX, Yes, YTLcomms

The Star reports that the Malaysian government is expected to release 9 blocks of spectrum for 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) to 9 players soon.

The 9 companies are believed to be:

• 4 Mobile telcos – Celcom, DiGi, Maxis & U Mobile
• 4 WiMAX operators – AMAX, P1, REDtone & YTL
• a company believed to be linked to Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukary

According to the paper’s source, each player will be getting 20MHz block of 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz spectrum which comprise the 70MHz and 120MHz blocks respectively, or a total of 190MHz.

Awarding 4G LTE to 9 companies is a big number and we wonder based on what merit that the spectrum is given. Looking at WiMAX itself, only half of the awarded operators are in commercial service while U Mobile, the newest mobile telco is still struggling to roll out its own 3G coverage nationwide. With the current scenario, we’re baffled to see them getting LTE spectrum when they can’t get their current 3G or WiMAX service covered properly. According to the report, the spectrum will be given to all so that nobody will be deprived from participating in rolling out 4G LTE. Strangely our very own Telekom Malaysia is not on the list.

Although we love competition, 9 seems to be too much for a country like Malaysia. Just recently Maxis & Celcom had started their own 4G LTE testing with its partners while DiGi says that they will focus on 3G first at the time being. We also wonder, what will happen to the WiMAX operators? Will they abandon WiMAX for LTE in future?

[ SOURCE ]

	AMAX, Celcom, DiGi, LTE, Maxis, P1, P1, Players on the Field, REDTone, Technologies, U Mobile, WiMAX, Yes
	3G, 4g, 4G LTE, 4G LTE Malaysia, 4G Malaysia, 4g wimax, amax, asiaspace, Celcom, Celcom Axiata, DiGi, Long Term Evolution, lte, LTE Malaysia, Maxis, P1, P1 WiMAX, REDTone, REDtone WiMAX, U Mobile, WiMAX, Yes, YTLcomms