My Experience of Prepaid Wireless Broadband

I do not hook up to internet that often after office hours, only once in a blue moon for research purposes. (after all, i get to connect to internet all day long in the office.)
It makes no sense for me to commit to the monthly flat rate plan , and thus I choose prepaid broadband for my non-office hours internet surfing.


Ok, I have done quite a bit of survey (that is just me, surveying even on these kind of menial stuff) - (comparison of packages as of today - 3 April 2010)

Oh, by the way, I have bought a D-Link WCDMA/HSDPA USB modem to test most of these packages. (No need to lock in to any packages just to get the bundled modem by any operator, it is the same standard HSDPA modem. It would work the same way. In fact, my D-Link modem has additional MicroSD card slot (for storage) and I can use the bundled software to send SMS. So, no need to top-up using my handphone, just the modem will do. )

Digi Limited Edition Prepaid Internet
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RM10 5 days unlimited data access (384kbps)
RM30 15 days unlimited data access (384kbps)
RM50 25 days unlimited data access (384kbps)
RM100 50  days unlimited data access (384kbps)
(with throttle of speed when reach a certain limit but still usable)

U-Mobile Prepaid Broadband
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UB6 1 day RM6 500MB data quota (384 kbps )
UB1O 30 days RM1O 100MB data quota (384 kbps )
UB2O 30 days RM 20 300 MB data quota (1.0 mbps )
UB4O 30 days RM 40 2GB data quota (1.0 mbps )
UB68 30 days RM 68 Unlimited (with throttle at 5Gb) (3.6 mbps )
(data quota means you would get disconnected once you reach the quota. No more internet. Ouch!!)

Celcom Prepaid Broadband
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RM6 Daily Unlimited (384 kbps )
RM20 Weekly Unlimited (384 kbps )
(no throttle on speed)

Maxis Prepaid Broadband
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RM8 Daily 500MB Data Quota (7.2 Mbps*)
RM25 Weekly 2.5Gb Data Quota (7.2 Mbps*)
(data quota means you would get disconnected once you reach the quota. No more internet. Ouch!!)


P1 W1GGY Prepaid Broadband
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RM20 15 days 500MB Data Quota (800 Kbps)
RM50 30 days 2.5GB Data Quota (800 Kbps)
(data quota means you would get disconnected once you reach the quota. No more internet. Ouch!!)


Ok, let start with Digi plan.
Digi Plan
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After much comparing all the packages available, it is clear in my opinion that Digi broadband is the most worthwhile package consider that it is unlimited in data download and cheapest in price. (RM10 for 5 days). You would ask, isn't that U-Mobile RM10 for 30 days more worthwhile? Wait a second, there is a 100MB data quota. Unless you are going to just check your mail and chatting(without smiley or images, and just pure text), 100MB is ridiculously little for you to consume. (Also, any of your application auto update, windows update, anti-virus update has to be configured not to download itself because any one of those updates easily take up more than 50Mb of download. Then you wonder where the download has went to).

However, when I actually tested with my 3.5G USB modem. To my disappointment, I can't connect to internet properly. It only has EDGE coverage and it is not usable at all. Constantly get disconnected and very very slow. I have even tested in other states and what I discover is , Sigh ~~~~
So, Digi no go for me. It is worthwhile only if your area has HSPDA coverage, or else, don't bother to try.


U-Mobile
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In term of price and number of packages you can pick on, it is the most flexible one among all. In fact, i am using it for very light surfing, like only checking mail, write blog or twitting. However, if I want to surf heavily for short term, there is no package available (RM68 only has unlimited, the rest has data quota).

Celcom
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Ok, in term of price, at first, it does not look attractive. But when you are really serious into using it for surfing or so for your internet related activities. You would realize that unlimited data is very important because, data download is not something you can control easily, many background processes, many background downloads, movies, software download, surfing, etc nowadays require high "bandwidth" and the reason of having broadband is to be able to surf freely with high bandwidth with many downloads. Data quota in my opinion is causing a broadband to be useless. Imagine that if you have 7.2 Mbps with 1 month stretch connection but what use can it be if you can only use it for lesser than a day. (suppose, you are hardcore broadband user). That is why unlimited is important.

Maxis
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7.2Mbps. Can they deliver it, I have not tested it, therefore, I not dare to deny anything. May be can, may be not.
However, if and only if they can deliver 7.2 Mbps. Then, probably this is the best package for one off download , may be in the range of 500MB and you need to download it fast. RM8 to download a 500MB of file with 7.2 Mbps connection would only take about 555.555 seconds (roughly 9 minutes ) in calculation.

By the way, I read that Maxis is the early adopter HSPA+ . Read - http://www.maxis.com.my/mmc/index.asp?fuseaction=press.view&recID=420

P1 W1ggy
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I think need not to mentioned anymore that data quota is bad idea. But if and only if you think you can control your download. Then, I think this would be an ideal package to invest on for user who want to use next generation of mobile network internet access with a decent price. It has much room to improve on since it is 4G (please note there is a launching of HSPA+ for 3G which could be parallel to 4G - Read more about 4G(Wimax) vs 3G(HSDPA/HSPA+) - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2359139,00.asp). However, the downside of this is P1 is creating their new network in this region. So, you won't be able to see good coverage in rural areas or some areas. Unlike existing 3G or 3.5G operators, they can just utilize existing mobile network. So, this is not an ideal package for people on the go. However, because also it is a new network and only for data purpose, the bandwidth is not extensively shared by mobile phone users which could be good.
Anything else need to mention here is that since it is Wimax, you can't use 3.5G or HSDPA/HSPA+ modem that you buy in the market. So, you are pretty much lock in to this operator if you are using Wimax modem.