Of HSBB(Unifi) & Streamyx

A look into my blog visits for the past month revealed that many Malaysians were excited about TM's HSBB (now known as Unifi).

I guess the poor Internet services from our local ISPs made the prospect of HSBB much more promising.
However, when the price was released, many people were not happy mainly due to the price and especially the download caps which have been removed till further noticed with the help of Tweeples (Twitter users) who complained to TM.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To implement NBI, the areas are zoned into three, depending on population densities, economic activities and existing telecoms infrastructure. Zone 1 is HSBB. Zone 2 covers urban and semi-urban areas. Zone 3 is meant for rural areas and this is where the RM4.6bil will go into, according to Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Utama Dr Rais Yatim.

The MCMC has identified 462 under-served areas in the country for the roll out of telephony, broadband and cellular access. The funds have to be managed properly to avoid possible pilferage and leakages. The MCMC claims it has been transparent in its management of the USP fund.

Rais says there is a new approach to the USP to include services provided for the disabled, women under rehabilitation and low cost residential areas and underpriviledged children.

“It is our social responsibility to ensure that everyone, be they rich or poor, young or old, is empowered with basic telephony and Internet services in any part of the country,’’ Rais says.
The target is to reach 50% broadband penetration by year-end; the country achieved 33.2% or 2.07 million homes by the end of last year.

Rais says “we are on track.’’

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another thing that I like to point out is that HSBB applies for speeds of 10mbps and above but Unifi provides 5mbps packages to users but they included a dedicated 8mbps line for IPTV for all packages.

As mentioned above, the government plans to achieve 50% broadband penetration but so far
only the high end Streamyx prices have been reduced.

2mbps for RM120 and 4mbps for RM140.

Which is RM20 per month reduced but what I failed to get is that speeds below 2mbps Streamyx never got reduced.

For example, a 384kbps Streamyx combo package still costs RM60.
When you count price per mbps, it is around RM180.

For a 2mbps package, the price per mbps is RM60.

The lower speeds packages are actually disadvantageous for the customer as you are paying 3 TIMES more than higher speed packages.

Makes you wonder if they can manage to get 50% broadband penetration when poor people are actually paying more in ratio.

They should emulate Hong Kong.

Unifi Poll Results

News about the recent Unifi. I guess it's not just me who thinks it's still too expensive



You’ve definitely heard about the TM Unifi High Speed Broadband when it was announced last month, you’re probably even one of the ones that caused them to remove usage cap indefinitely, but what does the 4415 respondents for a recent survey conducted on the MSN Malaysia homepage says? According to the results given, more than half the voters said that it is too expensive while 35% would like to subscribe to it but are worried about its stability. While only a mere 3% of respondents are happy customers enjoying the service now, it’s amazing that there are even 442 respondents (10%) who said that they do not need such a high speed service; I’m sure TM won’t have to worry about these users hogging the bandwidth.

http://www.lowyat.net/v2/latest/msn-malaysia-poll-result-what-do-you-think-of-unifi.html

New stuff from iTalk!!!!!!

iTalk, if you never heard about it , is a prepaid dialing card system where you enter codes before you can dial a number.

However, these days the emergence of affordable prepaid SIM cards seem to have slowly reduced its popularity.

And in the wake of the online revolution like e-mail, VOIP, IM and social networking, it seemed out of place or so I thought.

iTalk Whoa is an online platform created to unify the usage of e-mail, social networking and Instant Messaging.

What this means that now instead of opening a few tabs, you only need to use one tab to check out your e-mail, twitter and your IM which is quite convenient.

With iTalk Whoa Voice, you can call or SMS local and overseas land or mobile lines at lower rates than your usual mobile phone rates and best of all you can call other iTalk Whoa users for free! All you need is just an Internet connection, access to iTalk Whoa and a microphone, and you are all set to go.

Normal Calls (Fixed Lines): 10 sen/min NATIONWIDE Mobile Calls: 15 sen/min NATIONWIDE to ALL NETWORKS

I know Skype has the same features but the rates are a bit higher for the local calls and you need to have a credit card to use Skype to be able to use these features for outgoing calls.

For iTalk Whoa, you can just buy iTalk cards to top up your iTalk Whoa.
There is a Calendar feature to record what events you have planned or places you plan to go and share them with your friends instead of telling them one by one.

You can even synchronize the events and your contacts from iTalk Whoa with your phone if your phone can support it.

If you are a person who regularly checks your email, you can set up the Push Email feature on iTalk Whoa. After configuring your email account, you can be prepared to receive an SMS when a new email arrives as iTalk Whoa will send one, when there is new mail, after checking every 15 minutes. Alternatively, you could also receive the update from the email client of your mobile phone.

Having friends scattered across different IM platforms can be a major headache. Opening multiple chat programs at once can significantly slow down older computer. With iTalk Whoa, you can sign in to MSN, Yahoo, Google talk and Facebook chat simultaneously and I heard that there is also support for other IM platforms.

With that many features in store, you would think that a lot of money is needed to join iTalk Whoa but the fact is that it’s free. And if you are one of the early birds, you even get RM5 credited into your account for you to use.

So head on to www.iTalkwhoa.com and register now.
www.iTalkwhoa.com

CSL DS110 Review

When we hear of Malaysian made products, we usually think it is not that good in quality compared to products from overseas.

Nevertheless, I was eager to try out whether the statement holds true for Malaysian made mobile phones by CSL.

I bought a DS110 about a month ago and after using it for that period, there are some pros and cons to it.

Pros

The phone has quite a nice and simple design.

With buttons comfortable for people with big hands and a screen (2.2”) with large enough fonts, this phone seems good enough to cater for beginners and senior citizens.

The phone supports Chinese, English and Malay languages.

Battery life is not an issue here.

On normal usage, just taking calls and SMS, it took about a week to finish the battery.

However, it took me three days with intensive music usage using the supplied handsfree set.

The speakers were of decent quality and loud enough (or maybe too loud at times) and the sound recorder is quite clear too.

It also has an FM radio if you get bored with songs stored on your microSD card.

Not forgetting to mention that you can change songs by shaking your phone when playing MP3s and also Bluetooth connectivity.

There are also Islamic features which I don’t use at all.

Strangely enough, there is also a dice game where you shake the phone to shake the dice and also a lottery result subscription from the CSL fun club section.

The web browser on the phone uses GPRS and is quite simple to use although don’t expect heavy sites to load on this phone.

On another note, the phone supports dual SIM which is ideal during roaming so that you won’t have to carry 2 phones to travel in which you can disable the SIM that you are not using from the phone menu.

There is also a Facebook shortcut if you ever find the need to update your status.

Cons

If you expect heavy image and video usage, DO NOT consider this phone.

The camera resolution on the phone is very low (352X288=0.1megapixels) and the shutter sound CANNOT be disabled (and freaking loud) and you have to hold the camera for 3 seconds AFTER the shutter sound to get a good image.

The video payer is even worst, the video taken is much more blury and slow and the sound recorded is not as good as the one from the sound recorder feature.

The phone only has one port for charging and handfree in which the supplied charger connects to a USB port but CANNOT transfer any files which is very weird.

If you like to swap memory cards often, SKIP this phone too as you need to take out your battery to remove it.

Conclusion

This phone is good for those who are starting to use mobile phones like small kid and senior citizens due to its easy menu navigation and large screen and buttons.

However, for the experienced user, this phone fails miserably at the camera and video recording section and you can’t even transfer using USB. Thank god there is Bluetooth.

Consider this phone if you go overseas for dual SIM and also due to its simple design, most people would not think of stealing from you.

Overall verdict: 3 out of 5 for basic usage, MP3 functions and Dual SIM.

Pikom PC Fair(1) 2010

Woots!

PC Fair is here this month.


I wonder if they would showcase 3D TVs there?