Alternative ISPs in Malaysia

The only way a company with inferior products could dominate is by monopolizing the market. Having equally incompetent competitors help too…

After my recent “bout” with TM, I searched for alternatives. Here’s my views of them.

Jaring. A government body, said to be the second largest ISP in Malaysia. I was told their dial-up isnt that stable but I’m more interested in broadband. Well, they have wireless broadband, BUT it doesn’t cover my area. My residential area is quite huge and Jaring’s wireless coverage extends to only the main part of it. Since I live at the other fringe area, I’m out of luck here. I did call them up though asking if they could give me any alternatives. Been a week, and no replies yet. Thumbs down.

Maxiss wireless broadband doesn’t cover my area as well but their 3G coverage is “available” in my area. They can’t tell me how strong is the signal as the data rate will depend on this, with a maximum of 384kbps. They suggest I get a friend who subscribes to this service and get him to my area to test the signal strength. Hmm… shouldn’t you guys do this instead of me? The bonus of using 3G is that, I could bring my laptop wherever I go, and still surf the Net. Well, of course, subject to 3G coverage. Okay, I guess I have an alternative here.

The other 3G provider in Malaysia right now, Celcom, can’t tell me exactly whether their coverage extends to my area. All they said is that, it “should’ but can’t confirm. They too asked me to bring a friend over to check out myself. Man, customer service in Malaysia isnt’ that great as you can see now… I was told that Celcom has a wider 3G coverage than Maxis but since they can’t tell me what I need to know, that piece of information isn’t that useful to me yet. They said they could send someone over there to check but “not so soon”. I’m still waiting…

I was pleasantly suprised to find that Time is said to be one of the better ISPs around. I emailed them at about 10.30pm and within ten minutes, received a reply! A very polite tone emanates throughout the message thanking me for registering an interest in their product. But before that, I called their 24-hour hotline just in case no one replies my email (quite typical here). Guess what? It was 10.30pm and someone actually picked up the phone. Yeah, a human being rather than a cold cold machine! This guy was able to tell me instantly my area did not have the coverage. The only alternative they could offer is dial-up but according to him, even their dial-up is better than the competitors. Hmm… Not really a tremendous alternative but still worth considering if all else fails. It seems that they have used up all their capacity so they can’t take in any more new customers. I welcome such a conservative but pragmatic approach in this day of all out gung ho commercialism! Well, if they offer another product, you bet I’ll be giving this guy my time. Thumbs up!

Last company I approached is a relatively newcomer in this scene. eB - The Ultimate Internet Connection. Don’t know about that as it wasn’t easy to call through their phone. When I managed to talk to someone, she explained rather well about the company’s offerings. Again, Damn!, they don’t cover my area but they have another service which is also wireless broadband that *should* cover my area. They took down my particulars and will get someone to call me then check out my area. Well, that’s about the last I heard of them. : )

Boy, lest you think I live in some jungle, let me explain that this housing area been around for decades. The house I’m staying is 10 years old. The condominium across my place has 1440+ units while my townhouse has 400+ units so we definitely have “volume” here.

Oh well, that’s all for now!