The Malaysian Insider

Afizulazha, if you read this comment please answer my question..

I stay in the city centre of kl (bangsar area) & subscribed to maxis broadband with the speed of up to more than 3 mbps. You know what? I can't even watch you tube with maxis version of 3mbps, not to mention downloading & uploading activities. Recently it becomes worsen to the extent sometimes the speed is to low to open a site or excess email!! And I pay RM120 monthly to Maxis for this..

The best answer your customer service people could come up with was too many users in that area. 6 years old kid would not even buy that lame excuse. I believe I'm not alone in the matter. Please tell us what is Maxis definition of the speed??

I also live in KL and agree with Andrew. What is the point of doubling your subscribers if they cannot get connected thereafter? The connection is so unstable and keeps dropping out ... it once took me ONE hour to send ONE email via Yahoo. As for Youtube, I don't even bother anymore! If Maxis is going to lock its broadband customers to a one-year contract, it should provide adequate service!

According to the fine print on Maxis brochure, you are restricted to 3gb of usage. Once this is exceeded, Maxis will throttle your speed. This is what happened to me. Their so called fair usage policy was not highlighted to me when I signed up.

I've worked with Maxis in the engineering department before, but I'm now in the U.K. Here are some of my comments:

1. The fair usage policy exist everywhere else in the world, including in the U.K. and Singapore. This is due to the prevalent abuse of the bandwidth, especially to download illegal movies using P2P. Don't tell me you malaysians don't use torrent or xunlei?!!? 1 x 2 Mbps connections costs tens of thousands of dollars, so it doesn't make sense to allocate one of these connections to each users/subscriber - you'll have to share among all users. That's why if someone abuses the bandwidth, it's unfair to the rest -- thus the name fair usage policy. (Please note that a company can only provide its service as good as the profit allows.)

2. HSDPA on 2 carriers can give up to 7.2Mbps -- theoretically. And this is shared in one station, i.e. in a radius of about 600m in the city. So you can only get close to 7.2Mbps when you are the ONLY user in that 600m radius around the station. I admit that this statement is misleading. But guess what, in the UK, Vodafone, O2 and all other big operators advertise the same way, i.e. the theoretical max throughput.

3. The good thing is, Maxis's broadband network is still one of the better ones even if compared across the world.

4. The bad news is, it is an inevitable fact that if you use Maxis broadband in highly congested areas you'll get snail speed. Blame telekom for monopolising the fiber optic cables and thus the wired internet access =P. Alternatively, you could try celcom, not many broadband users there, so it's faster. But once the number of subscribers pick up, i think the same problem will occur.

I use Maxis and the speed is acceptable -- ie over 1Mb/s -- until I exceed my fair use limit, later in the month. I prefer Jaring wireless but I am outside its coverage area. P1 was impressive when it was new but I hear lot sof complaints now, though since I'm outside coverage, it's no point getting it. DiGi was very fast when it was new but don't know now. I underatnd that Celcom is more consistent. However, with the exception of Jaring wireless, they all have fair use policy.

I agree with Shinliang that fair use is necessary because of the P2P downloaders who hog the bandwidth but then this is the Internet where the culture, to paraphrase that Queen song is,I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.

I guess broadband is not quite like buffet. With a buffet, you stop when you are full but with broadband, you can go on and one.

Imagine if people who attend a buffet eat, then go to the toilet and tickle their throat to bring it all up, then go back and eat again and repeat the process several times. Well the hotel would go bankrupt or it would have to raise the price of the buffet. I understand the ancient Romans did that in the dying days of empire.

"Blame Telekom for monopolising the fibre optic cables"?

Perhaps Telekom does "monopolise" fibre but with a Network Facilities Provider license, Maxis can lay its own fibre optic cables. However, what is cheaper and faster -- lay your own fibre or lease from Telekom?

The government should fix leased line prices at a more affordable rate for the sake of the consumers and the country.

Shin Liang,

I am among the millions of internet users in the country who have a little knowledge on the technical part of how internet works & your explanation is something to take note of, but isn't maxis should aware the of the problem of their product instead of we understand their product problem. We are the subscribers who happen to pay for the service & maxis shouldn't hide the fact of the problem if they don't have solution or care less to improve its server.

By the way, to say maxis still offer the better broadband compare to the world is overrated. Oxford University study shown that malaysia's broadband quality is poor & below par compared to many countries that have broadband - 48 out of 66 countries. With such speed, we can't even call it broadband.

No matter what it is, we don't get the service & value that worth the price we paid. That's the concern from customer point.

I agree with Andrew. We are the consumers and we pay for the services we expect the provider to deliver. Green, blue, yellow, orange, red/black ... they're all the same in the end.

The responsible authority is delinquent. Rais? This fler doesn't think!

If you do your maths, you can tell congestion means more income. Build a condition into operating matrix that they must provide hardware for a leeway of so many per cent above congestion, if not fine them. And manage this. If you collect enough fines to solve the problem, many more people will be happier. And possibly richer, too!

Rais is an idiot!

I cannot even get maxis telephone lines a lot of times. The line simply drops. Don't even mention broadband. Now, when I am approached by a Maxis salesman at shopping malls, I usually de-motivate them by telling them what a lousy experience I had and continue to have with Maxis. Hopefully they will be de-motivated enough to go sell for another service provider, because nobody feels good selling a lousy product!

This is my suggestion, go for Celcom broadband. The best in Malaysia as per advertised. You all have to trust me. I tried Maxis once, but since the registration, not even 1 web page or email I can send. I managed to get the refund but....after more than a year to get back my RM100. And for that, now I am blacklisted by Maxis....

P1-no comment since no experience
Ezi- snail
Digi- so so...

Even when I want to buy iphone 3GS, I willing to pay extra (RM2900 for iphone 3GS 16GB for officially unlocked from Australia) simply because I really can not trust Maxis for all internet matter.

And I work just next to Maxis headquarter which is in Petronas Twin Towers...

And the truth is, almost all (majority) in my department (Instrument and Communication Engineering) never use Maxis, all go for Celcom. Recently our Communication System Manager also switch to Celcom after throwing his E71 Nokia phone served by Maxis.

So, Maxis...you are the biggest liar in Malaysia...

Once I met the sales person for Maxis selling broadband. There is no 3G signal in the shop or anywhere inside the shopping complex. Funny how ones can sell something that cannot be used.

Hey, these tricksters would use their laptop wi-fi connection in the malls to FAKE a Maxis 3G/HSDPA signal!

It happens all the time. Next time, ask the salesperson to turn off the blue wi-fi signal on their laptops and then demo the Maxis Broadband service.