Maxis reveals new wireless plans

Today Maxis shows up new decorated wireless broadband plans.Maxis is setting up the wireless plan upon its growing UMTS/HSDPA network and so theoretically the speed for downlink should be around 2-3Mbps when you’re at a good coverage area.The new plans are pricing lower than the previous ones.I think this could be considered as a fight-back to Celcom which also makes 3G data service as a part of value added services.Another mobile service player-DiGi,however,wants to assist 3G data service to be one of its main products.

I had taken a closer look at the table of new plans.It’s cheaper than before,but not attractive to me at all.

New Maxis bb monthly plan New Maxis bb daily/weekly plan The volume of usage is the way that they distinct the different plans.The most deluxe monthly plan is only of 12GB data volume,which is almost the same volume of my daily usage for watching some YouTube HD video clips,playing some online games,visiting some social networking websites and updating my blog etc-definitely not for heavy downloading.I think the plans are only good for those people who need to have broadband access on the move without occurring too many usages.

It seems Streamyx is still the king of Broadband in Malaysia in terms of prices and speeds(RM160 monthly at 4Mbps unlimited access) currently.

HSPA+ in Singapore

Starhub Singapore mobile operator-Starhub will launch 21Mbps HSPA+ network by the end of April.Following that schedule,it is the second operator who uses HSPA+ technology in Asia and Australian operator Telstra is the first one where it launched the service in last month.

I have to differentiate HSPDA,HSPA and HSPA+ clearly here.Maxis and Celcom,who are the two largest mobile broadband operators in Malaysia,are using HSDPA technology(if not wrongly informed) that works up to 14Mbit/s in the downlink and only 384Kbit/s in the uplink.However,the Malaysian latest mobile broadband operator-Digi is using HSPA which improves the end-user experience by having peak data rates up to 14 Mbit/s in the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s in the uplink.Thus,we could say that Digi has the advantages to beat with two other large competitors in the markets.

Starhub’s HSPA+,in the meanwhile,also calls as Evolved HSPA.It even could provide up to 42 Mbit/s on the downlink and 22 Mbit/s on the uplink.The speed is so amazing that it’s able to fight with a few of wired broadband now.It brings the average broadband speed in Singapore into another high and pushes the whole industry moving towards a better position.

HSBB in Malaysia is a desirable project,however I feel there is too few motivations,perhaps competitions.I wish these mobile operators could join the battle to give consumers more options and encourage the sector growing much healthier than what we see now.Singapore is a very good example and I think Malaysia could learn a lot from there.

I wonder when I could enjoy HSPA+ or equivalent service in Malaysia.Frankly speaking,I want it to be tomorrow! :P