REDtone, the other WiMAX operator which operates in East Malaysia is also doing a Chinese New Year Promotion for its Home Broadband packages. From now until 28th February 2011, they are giving 1 month free subscription, free 12 months modem rental, free activation waiver (worth RM100) and a 7 days money back guarantee.

Plans and packages wise, they are pretty much the same as before with their entry Home-Lite going at RM98/month with 1Mbps download speeds and 384kbps upload. The monthly quota for their Home-Lite is 25GB/month. More details on the promotion at their website.

REDtone has been pretty quiet lately and according to their coverage map, their WiMAX service is limited to Kuching, Miri and Kota Kinabalu. Several months ago, REDtone was pretty ambitious and wanted to be given the right to roll out in Peninsular Malaysia as well.

Sabah and Sarawak residents are quite deprived when it comes to internet connectivity and even 3G coverage is not covered in all major towns and cities. With the lack of choice, this is quite a gold mine for other telcos to jump in before the rest catch up in this region. In 2009, P1 had announced that they will be coming to Sabah and Sarawak in 2010 but until now they have yet to make any presence at all on that side of the country. If P1 makes an entry, that would shake up the competition in the wireless space in Sabah and Sarawak.

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.

REDtone WiMAX Coverage

About a year of launch, REDtone has covered both capital cities of Sabah and Sarawak. Areas highlighted in red means covered while blue areas are marked soon to be covered.

Kuching, Sarawak

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

More detail coverage available at REDtone WiMAX coverage map over here.

REDtone, how fast can you roll?

East Malaysia is a huge area and REDtone has yet to roll out coverage into the other major towns and cities such as Sibu, Bintulu and Miri in Sarawak and Sandakan and Tawau in Sabah. In order for REDtone to achieve its penetration target, they would need to cover more places beyond Kuching and Kota Kinabalu quickly.

After all, REDtone no longer holds the monopoly of WiMAX in East Malaysia as the government has already allowed P1 to expand to Sabah and Sarawak. REDtone has got some serious work to defend their ground before P1 starts covering East Malaysia.

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.