Saturday, October 27, 2007

Celcom Broadband

Finally I have my own Internet access at home after years of waiting. The apartment that I live in don't have phone jack to subscribe to TM streamyx. So, my only option is to have wireless broadband. Live in urban area but don't have fixed line telephone jack. Maybe the issuance of CF(Certificate of Fitness) should include phone jack.

The broadband Internet service seems attractive with only RM71 a month plus 5% tax. However, I am not happy with the service provided by Celcom. There are some loop hole here and there and is not up to the standard to be recognize as broadband service. First of all, the service is extremely slow. How slow? I think it is worse or just like dial-up speed. In their advertisement they (Celcom) mention the speed of up to 384Kb/Sec but most of the time it is just tenth of that speed. At least I should get around 60-100kb/sec as my place only has GPRS coverage and no 3G yet. Email site takes around 2-3 minutes to load. Even loading this blog site takes around 10 minutes. Celcom shouldn't sell the service as 3G if it is still not up to the standard.

Because of slowness, I am not able to do the following or having problems:
-VPN to my office network.
-View video on YouTube
-Download video from YouTube using keepvid
-Yahoo messenger keeps disconnecting from time to time.
-Wasting time having to wait pages to load. Suffers from lack of sleep!
-Often receive cannot find server error around 7pm to 9pm. Server down haha…

It is not just the speed that I am complaining. This service also block several applications:
-Windows LIVE Messenger.(Block certain ports. You will get firewall error).
-YouTube often load halfway.
-Download takes ages to complete although using download manager.
-Google Earth
-And more to come as I only use this service for one week.

My verdict it Celcom broadband is not value for money and if you have Streamyx, just stick to it. Although TMnuts Streamyx often receives criticism, it is still the best option now. For those who think sending first Malaysian to space is a great achievement, please think twice. There are still many Malaysian who suffer from hunger, poverty & without proper education. In my case, there are still Malaysian who can get proper Internet service although live in urban area (near bandar bukit tinggi Klang). The fund used to send a person to space can be used to provide basic neccesity and infrastructure for citizen's needs. Not sure whether Maxis will provide better service.