Valentine’s day is coming on February 14th and Yes is running a special Valentine’s Day promotion for the month of February. They are offering a combo of a Yes 4G Mifi or home gateway that comes with a free USB modem and a chance to publicly declare your love on their big Yes LED Cube in front of Lot 10 on Valentine’s day.

For RM499, they are offering either Yes huddle MiFi or a Yes Zoom gateway which comes with 2x RM50 reloads. Looking at the details, they are giving RM30 free credit upon activation. On top of that, they will give RM60 loyalty credit for every 6 months within the 1 year subscription period they give RM60 if you stay with them for 6 months and they will give additional RM100 if you stay on further until 12 months. That makes the Yes huddle Mifi and Yes Zoom effectively RM249 if you stay with them for a year.

In the promo, they listed a total bundle of RM190 credit but from our calculation it is RM130 bundled credit upfront and additional RM120RM160 credit if you stay on for a year. Not sure if there’s any mistake but do clarify with them before signing up. In addition, they will also give a free Yes Go USB Modem with RM50 rebate credit for your loved one. Seriously, a USB stick as a Valentine’s Day gift? We rather you give the Yes Huddle Mifi as a gift instead.

Only those that purchase the Valentine combo will be entitled to submit their dedications online. The top 10 will be picked and shall be notified on February 13th, the day before the dedications go live on V-day. As extra goodies, they are also throwing additional prizes for the best top 3 submissions for the entire month. So if you want your message to be on the cube, you better do so before February 12th.

For more information, head over here.

	Mobile Devices, Players on the Field, Yes
	Valentine's day, Yes, yes 4g, yes go, yes huddle, Yes LED Cube, yes malaysia, Yes Mifi, yes zoom

Yes is doing a special Raya promo where they are giving free credit and Yes ID registration when you purchase their wireless devices. In addition, they are also giving extra free credits if you stay with them for extended duration.

First up, their Yes Huddle MiFi and Yes Zoom home gateway which is sold at RM399 each comes with RM30 credit together with free Yes ID registration worth RM50. If you stay with them for 6 months, RM60 will be credited into your Yes Account. Upon reaching 12 months, they will credit another RM100 credit. In total, that’s RM190 worth of free credits for 12 months. Initially we thought you’ll get RM160 after a year but it was revealed in the FAQ that only RM100 is given, hence RM160 is the total credit rewarded. As expected, you need to keep your account active for 12 months which requires a minimum top up of RM30/month.

For those who didn’t know, your normal Yes Credits can be transferred to Yes ValuePack seamlessly online. This is useful when you foresee a high monthly usage and you can tap into your remaining credit.

Meanwhile the simple Yes Go is offered at RM100 which comes with Yes ID (worth RM50) and RM50 worth of rebate. No details whether the rebate is given one shot or by monthly basis. If RM50 is given immediately, this makes it a good temporary prepaid broadband service for tourist.

For more information, head to Yes Raya Turbo Kit promo page.

	Mobile Devices, Players on the Field, Yes
	Hari Raya, raya turbo kit, Yes, yes 4g, yes go, yes huddle, yes zoom

Our daily routine at SoyaCincau.com is scanning local telco sites for the latest news and updates on what happening in the industry. A quick look at the Yes.my website today reveals two new products from the 4G operator. These new products are called Yes Starter Packs.

Each Starter Pack comes with a pre-registered Yes ID and 018 number which makes it signing up for a Yes account a pretty straight forward affair. All you need to do is purchase the Starter Pack, activate your account using the preset Yes ID and you’re good to go.

There are two types of starter packs. The Go Starter Pack cost RM100 and includes a Yes Go as well as RM50 worth of credit that you can use to surf the internet or make calls and send SMS with. Essentially what this is is a prepaid mobile broadband pack that you can also use to make voice calls and send SMS with. Considering that it’s not just a mobile broadband service, this Go Starter Pack is pretty good value for money for light and medium web users who want to give Yes a go (pun intended). Heavy downloaders can look elsewhere.

The other Starter Pack is the the Yes ID Starter Pack. For RM50 you get a preset Yes ID and 018 mobile number with RM9 worth of credit included. This is probably good for people who are want to use Yes more for making calls and sending SMS rather than surfing the web. The good thing about this Yes ID Starter Pack is that if you do choose to use Yes to surf the web, all you need to do is just get a Yes device and use back the same Yes ID. There’s no need to register for another account.

Hit up the source link for more info on the Yes Starter Packs.

[source]

	Players on the Field, Yes
	Yes, yes 4g, yes go, Yes ID, Yes Life, Yes Starter Packs

Yes says they deliver a mobile 4G experience. With this notion in mind, took our Yes Go on a road test in KL and we’ve taken it on a road test in PJ.

From our findings, both tests produced consistent results. The Yes network is indeed capable of delivering mobile data services but there are several gaps in its coverage that we hope Yes can cover quickly to deliver true seamless mobility broadband. Having said that and considering the fact that Yes is a new network, we were mightily impressed by the extent of the network coverage so far as well as the speeds that we were able to achieve during the previous two road tests.

So things are looking peachy for this new network but we’ll have to keep reminding you this is still a new network with a relatively smaller load on it compared to the more established players. We’ve heard so many times before that Malaysians don’t mind paying for their Internet so long as it is consistent and reliable. This looks to be an opportunity in which YTL can capitalise on. There is no secret formula to being a successful Internet service provider, all they need to deliver is consistency.

As we’ve been enjoying very good speeds on the Yes network, we hope Yes is able to keep this speed consistent even as the network gets loaded up with subscribers. If they can, then there’s really nothing to hold Yes back in winning the hearts and wallets of Malaysians.

So back to our topic of discussion. We’ve shared with you our findings on the performance — both in terms of mobility and speed — of the Yes network in certain areas in the Klang Valley, the question now is how does Yes perform outside Klang Valley?

It’s common sense for telcos to focus the bulk of their network resource towards market centres and high densitiy areas. This means more that often than not, outlying rural areas are not as well covered as it should be. At launch Yes boasts a population coverage of 65% deploying over 1,000 base stations throughout the country. This is more than its current 4G competitor P1 which currently claim around 40% population coverage with under 900 base stations currently being deployed.

All this is fine and dandy but right now what we want to know is where exactly in the populated areas is the 65% coverage focused on. Can Yes deliver consistent connectivity outside city centres? How is the network performance in areas outside of KL?

To find out, we took our trusty Yes Go along with USB modems and SIMs from DiGi, Maxis and U Mobile and hit the road up north to Penang for a mega road test shootout. On the way, we also wanted to find out if the Yes network has indeed got most of the North-South expressway covered.

Initially their map showed coverage blanketing most parts of the highway however a day before our trip, we found out that the map has been “updated” revealing a completely different coverage map with much less areas covered. This got us contemplating if we should carry on with the test as it looks like there is no coverage on our route, but with the understanding that sometimes coverage maps can be inaccurate, we continued with the test anyway.

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	Players on the Field, Product review, Technologies, WiMAX, Yes
	4g, 4g wimax, ipoh, penang, WiMAX, Yes, yes 4g, yes 4g ipoh, yes 4g penang, yes 4g performance, yes 4g plans, yes 4g review, yes 4g roadtest, yes 4g speedtest, yes 4g usb modem, yes go, yes launch, yes malaysia, yes usb modem, yes ytl, ytl comms, YTL WiMAX, YTL yes

Having tested the Yes Go’s mobility performance around Kuala Lumpur and discovering that the Yes network is indeed mobile delivering rather good performance, we decided to go a step further by taking the Yes Go to various parts of Petaling Jaya and Subang as well.

We wanted to find out if the Yes network can deliver consistent speeds and throughput performance outside of KL. We tested the Yes Go USB dongle on two routes, one along the New Pantai Expressway and the other along Federal Highway.

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	Players on the Field, Product review, Technologies, WiMAX, Yes
	4g, 4g wimax, Federal Highway, New Pantai Expressway, WiMAX, Yes, yes 4g, yes 4g performance, yes 4g plans, yes 4g review, yes 4g roadtest, yes 4g speedtest, yes 4g usb modem, yes go, yes launch, yes malaysia, yes usb modem, yes ytl, ytl comms, YTL WiMAX, YTL yes

We are heading up north to Penang to test the performance of the Yes 4G network outside of KL. We will be updating our twitter feed regularly along the way.

We’ve reached Ipoh and so far we found the coverage along the North-South highway from KL is patchy. We managed to get connectivity, albeit intermittent, up to the 404KM marker of the North-South highway. Where there’s coverage, the speed is generally better compared to 3G operators. Considering that Yes is a new network, we can see from our road test that Yes has better data coverage along the highway  compared to the more established 3G networks like U Mobile and in some instances DiGi. Look out for our full report coming soon.

For regular updates on our trip to Penang, follow us on twitter at @Soya_Cincau to find out how Yes compares with other 3G operators on the road.

Previous Yes Performance Tests
Yes 4G KL Road Test
Yes 4G Dongle First impressions and initial tests

	Players on the Field, Product review, Technologies, WiMAX, Yes
	4g, 4g wimax, WiMAX, Yes, yes 4g, yes 4g performance, yes 4g plans, yes 4g review, yes 4g roadtest, yes 4g speedtest, yes 4g usb modem, yes go, yes launch, yes malaysia, yes usb modem, yes ytl, ytl comms, YTL WiMAX, YTL yes

Earlier, we took with the Yes Go USB dongle for a spin and we’ll be the first to admit that we were quite impressed with what the Yes network has to offer. In our stationary tests, we managed 5Mbps downloads and 2Mbps uploads with only two bar reception with the test done on the 17th floor. We know that the network is still new and there’s still very little load on it but even by this measure the speeds that we’re getting are rather impressive for a wireless network.

This was stationary tests but since Yes touts its 4G network as mobile we wanted to know how mobile is mobile. Yes’ closest competitor — P1 — has been in the market for the good part of two years with a claimed population coverage of around 40% and even with a good head start, P1 still can’t claim its network as a mobile network.

How does Yes fare in comparison? First up, Yes already has a lead in terms of coverage with a claimed 65% of the population covered. Next, Yes offers an all-4G mobile phone and a 4G MiFi, two devices P1 doesn’t have in its product arsenal at the moment. Based on this, it seems to us that Yes has their sights set on taking a few chunks of the mobile market from the 3G boys. And so, that will be the bar that we will measure Yes with.

We’re expecting the Yes 4G mobile network to deliver strong and consistent performance in places where 3G would as well as while traveling in between these locations — just like 3G. We will be looking for seamless connectivity and we will also be looking to answer some of the questions that you’ve asked in our comments section. How does the Yes Go and the Yes 4G network handle hand-overs between sites? Does it disconnect when switching base-stations?

Find out the answer to this and more in our road test of the Yes 4G network within Klang Valley.

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	Players on the Field, Product review, Technologies, WiMAX, Yes
	4g, 4g wimax, WiMAX, Yes, yes 4g, yes 4g performance, yes 4g plans, yes 4g review, yes 4g roadtest, yes 4g speedtest, yes 4g usb modem, yes go, yes launch, yes malaysia, yes usb modem, yes ytl, ytl comms, YTL WiMAX, YTL yes

Things are starting to turn around for Yes. After a poor start off the blocks in this ridiculously competitive telco race, the new contender is looking like it might be able to keep up with the pace.

After receiving an email confirmation that our pre-registered account has been activated, we were finally able to log onto the Yes network with our Yes ID. And with that we immediately started on some performance tests of the Yes network and the Yes Go 4G dongle.

So here it is our first impression of Yes 4G network while using the Yes Go dongle.

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	Players on the Field, Product review, Technologies, WiMAX, Yes
	4g, 4g wimax, WiMAX, Yes, yes 4g, yes 4g performance, yes 4g plans, yes 4g review, yes 4g speedtest, yes 4g usb modem, yes go, yes launch, yes malaysia, yes usb modem, yes ytl, ytl comms, YTL WiMAX, YTL yes

We’ve just came back from Lot 10 where Yes flagship store is located. At time of launch, only 2 devices are offered – Yes Go, their 4G USB Gongle and Yes Huddle MiFi device. Their 4G Phone – Yes Buzz and home gateway – Yes Zoom which was showed off during the brand launch will only be making an appearance in December.

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	Mobile Devices, Players on the Field, Yes
	4g, 4g wimax, WiMAX, Yes, yes 4g, yes 4g devices, yes 4g plans, yes buzz, yes go, yes huddle, yes launch, yes malaysia, yes price plan, yes ytl, yes zoom, ytl comms, YTL WiMAX, YTL yes

Over the past few days, Yes — the latest 4G operator in town — had launched an interesting guerrilla marketing campaign focused around the Bukit Bintang area. The campaign had a group of people dressed up as stormtroopers made famous by Star Wars saga emblazoned with the Yes logo walking around the Bukit Bintang area to create buzz about the brand.

This viral-guerrilla marketing thing that Yes is doing is no doubt very interesting and it certainly does generate a lot of interest for the brand and its upcoming mobile service that is slated to be launched on November 19.

Ahead of the full service launch, Yes has started an online pre-registration campaign to allow those who are interested in signing up for the service to pick a unique Yes ID and 018 mobile number.

A quick scan on Facebook and Twitter reveals that many are liking this novel approach as well but the question still remains, will Yes be a mobile operator that can deliver the goods or will it struggle to find traction in an intensely competitive industry?

The proof is in eating the pudding and it seems — for now at least — Yes is making all the right moves building up to the brand’s service launch next week, but until we can experience the Yes network for ourselves, we’ll reserve our judgment.

The reason as to why the Yes stormtroopers are roaming in and around the Bukit Bintang area is because, the Yes flagship store will be located at Lot 10. To remind the public of the upcoming launch, the people at Yes have erected a massive LED cube that displays a countdown timer to the launch day at the location of the flagship store

We were on site at the flagship store at the centre concourse area of Lot 10 and construction looks to be almost complete. From what we’ve seen, the Yes flagship store appears to have been heavily influenced by Steve Job’s Apple Stores with its simple yet clean appearance.

Like we’ve mentioned before, things are looking good for the launch of yet another mobile broadband operator in Malaysia and we can’t wait to try the service out. At launch, Yes will be offering 4 devices during launch — USB Modem, 4G Phone, 4G MiFi and 4G Home Desktop Modem.

Keep it locked on to SoyaCincau.com for the latest developments on Yes.

More photos after the jump.

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	Cool stuff, Players on the Field, Technologies, WiMAX, Yes
	4g, 4g wimax, star wars, stormtroopers, WiMAX, Yes, yes 4g, yes buzz, yes go, yes huddle, yes malaysia, yes ytl, yes zoom, ytl comms, YTL WiMAX, YTL yes