What a load of crap!

I’m subscribed to the Maxis broadband Power package with the peak speed up to 3.6 Mbps. But I’d be lucky to consistently get 100 Kbps. Broadband indeed! Oh, hang on. There’s a small print that says “Speed of service is on best effort basis”. There you go! All of us subscribers should now accept that we will never get those published speeds. Hey, can’t really blame them when they did try their best, can we?

Makes me wonder what their normal effort is. Hah!

I still don’t understand that on best effort basis thing, though. Does it mean Maxis does not have the infrastructure and capabilities to actually produce the maximum speed they claim they can provide? It’s probably the same with all the other internet service providers. I know TMNet Streamyx is like that.

So I’m paying RM103 every month (RM98 fees + RM5 for itemised billings) for a broadband service that doesn’t even deserve to be called broadband. Speed test? Most of the time the speed I got was less than dial-up.

If it was not for the RM1,000+ that I have to pay to terminate my Maxis broadband account, I would have done that last week. Why do I have to pay that much, you ask? Because Maxis requires new subscribers to sign an 18-month contract with them, that’s why. So if I want to stop using Maxis before the end of the contract period, I have to pay for the rest of the unused months. And why did I sign up with Maxis in the first place? Because the other broadband providers were too slow to offer their services.

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Related posts:

• Terminating my Maxis broadband account – Part 1
• Terminating my Maxis broadband account – Part 2
• Terminating my Maxis broadband account – Part 3
• Celcom broadband is definitely better
• Feedback on Maxis Broadband?

For somebody whose knowledge on broadband technologies are more towards (1) able to connect to the internet (and stay connected), and (2) get results fast (be it surfing or downloading), it is quite obvious that, despite the progress made in Malaysia on broadband technology over the years, the services still cannot compare to the ones offered in Singapore.

I did some browsing on the broadband packages offered by TMNet (Streamyx) and SingTel, and here’s what I came up with:

I shouldn’t probably compare Maxis with the other two but since I’m currently subscribed to Maxis (the RM 98 package), I might as well put it in.

If any of you are from Maxis, please be informed that the speed I’ve been getting since day one are disgustingly low. They barely reached 500 Kbps. In fact, I just measured the speed and McAfee gave me 20 Kbps. ZDNet gave me 29 Kbps. Like, hello??!!!

One other thing to note, TMNet prices do not include the monthly telephone charges. So that’s roughly another RM25 to add to the prices. I also had a peek at Jaring’s packages and honestly, they’re not worth mentioning.

The comparison clearly shows that Malaysia has a lot of catching up to do to be at par with Singapore. To be fair, please do not convert the currencies when comparing. Otherwise it would not be apple to apple now, would it?

I am not going to go into the reasons for these differences. You know.. geography, economy of scale, technology, blah blah blah… Not that I know exactly what the reasons are.. but I do recommend that you read the discussions following the blog post at www.jeffooi.com. They really really are interesting. Not to mention, quite amusing too. They make me think of going to all those countries and do some research on the issue. But then, there are other people better qualified to do that. So I leave it to them solve the puzzle. Besides, I’m just too lazy. And simply can’t afford it. Hehehe…

AY: Still dreaming of the day when he can surf the internet at the speed of 10 Mbps, without costing him his arms and legs.