Maxis High-Speed 3G Broadband: Worth It?

My darling is a student at my former university (UiTM Shah Alam) where I used to go to. She lives in a hostel inside the university called Kolej Melati. She said that nowadays, every student is encourage to own a laptop or at least a computer. It has been a couple of years since UiTM has introduced online registration each time a new semester is opened. Because of that, every UiTM or generally most of university students in Malaysia should have at least a basic understanding of how to use a web browser and the internet.

With this online trend going strong, having access to the internet is getting more and more a necessity in a life of a student. The sad part is, Wi-Fi areas where a lot of students could access the internet easily is very limited. Fortunately, at my darling's hostel, they provide a WiFi coverage called Kolej Melati Wi-Fi Hotspot Instant Surf (WHIS). They've already installed the service for over a year now and they've recently extended the service to the hostel next to it (Kolej Mawar).

The WHIS service is not a free Wi-Fi. To subscribe, after paying a registration fees to get a username and password, a RM50 fee per semester has to be paid to enjoy the service.  My darling was one of the first to register and during the early deployment, the connection was quite good. From my observation (yeah, I went into her hostel area many times..hehe), the Wi-Fi source was a cybercafe inside the hostel and they broadcast the signal from an antenna just outside the cafe. Problem arises when more and more student subscribe and connection became unstable probably because of the demanding traffic I supposed.

There was one Wi-Fi service provider a few months back came to the hostel and launched another Wi-Fi service called Blue Dream. They gave out a free trial for a week and was going to charge RM40 per month. My darling tested that one and the connection was blazing fast. For me, RM40 per month is too steep for a student to pay plus wireless environment is not something reliable you can trust yet. Apparently, the service provider got chased out by the hostel management from what I heard so the WHIS is still the sole Wi-Fi provider for UiTM's Kolej Melati and Kolej Mawar. I wonder why TMNet hadn't install their Hotzone service for UiTM's residential college such as what they did at Universiti Teknologi Petronas the past several months.

Unfortunately, the WHIS is not working the past several weeks now. Basically, it's useless and not worth the money paid. She recently found out a friend of hers who is using Maxis High-Speed 3G Broadband a couple of floors up from where her room is. The network is utilizing the Maxis 3G network for internet access. I did some reading on that last year and was taking it as an option to my highly unstable Streamyx connection. Last night, I also did some readings on a few blogs and forum as listed down below this blog post. There's a lot of things to consider because from most of my readings, a lot of them are negative feedback. However, we all know that we tend to complain far more than praising so it's not really fair to judge before trying right?

So earlier today, after being begged by my darling plus my eagerness to try out something new, we head down to Maxis Centre downtown Suria KLCC. Stepping inside Maxis Centre got me kind of impressed with a lot of decorations and with so many terminals promoting the latest handphone craze. After asking the officer about the product, I finally signed on the dotted line upon agreeing for a trial 30 days run of usage for the Maxis Wireless High-Speed 3G Broadband. Just to let you know, the modem is actually really bulky. I mean, your TM Net Streamyx  DSL modem is a lot smaller. So, it's not really mobile after all. Drop by Maxis Centre if you happen to go there to see it for yourself. It's just in front of the reception area.

Actually I don't really need another internet connection as my house is already equipped with Wi-Fi powered by a 1MB TMNet Streamyx connection but this is a chance for me to test out this product first before handing it over to my darling for her to use. Of course I'll do a review of it when I get my hand on it, so stay tuned.

By the way, the Maxis guy told me that they are currently receiving a lot of applications so it may take up to one month before the installation can be done. The guy also told me that a lot of people are returning the modem and asking for their money back after trying it out less than a month. Oh well, I guess I'd better wait and try it for myself before jumping into conclusion.

Related info for you to munch:

• 
  Maxis High-Speed 3G Broadband for Home
• 
  Maxis Broadband to broaden TMNet's Narrowband -Alex Allied
• 
  Sign Up Maxis Broadband -A simple & beautiful life
• 
  3G Broadband On The Go? PC Fair 2007 -Boredworkers.com
• 
  Maxis launches 3.5G or HSDPA Residential Broadband -MyPDACafe.com
• 
  Quest for Mobile Internet Connection -shutterspeaks.com
• 
  Maxis broadband, anyone? -Jeffooi.com
• 
  Finally,I'm back online (Using Maxis Wireless) -The Anything Goes Blog
• 
  Should I switch to Maxis Broadband -Zeo
• 
  Maxis HSPDA? -Bernard Travelogue & Random Ramblings

Update: I've wrote about my experience with this service: Maxis Wireless Internet 3G Broadband Review.


After 642-436, many students aim for 1Y0-259. Those who don’t, usually decide upon 70-536 or 70-642, before thinking of the advanced 642-642 certificate.