ISP

ISP, stand for Internet Service Provider, is a service for your internet connection. In here, I would like to share my opinion about ISP in our country (I'm from Malaysia), including the advantages and disadvantages among several ISP. I'm not sure the exact nos. of ISP in Malaysia, but for the time being I would like to discuss about Streamyx, Celcom Broadband, Maxis Broadband, DiGi Broadband and also P1 Wimax.

I'll start with Streamyx. It's a fixed line ISP, mostly used in Malaysia. The speed ranges from 384 kb/s to 4 Mb/s and the price also ranging, of course it will cost you more for a faster speed connection. I don't wanna tell you the price here but you can get it and more info about packages from its website. This ISP has a steady connection compares to others but in term of mobility, the others are much better. It uses fixed telephone line and because of that, the users also face another problem, which is the lost of cable because of theft, especially in rural area. When this thing happens, you have to wait for them to repair the cable, which is much more longer than the time for the culprits to steal the cable again. But with the right equipments and devices, you can set up a wireless internet around your house within certain range. Better option for those who uses internet at their home only. You can choose the right package to suite your usage, and it has packages that has unlimited access and unlimited usage, which is good for heavy internet user. But there is a fair usage policy for this ISP, limited for P2P or file sharing software such as torrent, limewire, ares and etc...

Celcom, Maxis, and DiGi use the same technology, which is 3G or HSDPA, and can be categorized in a same group. More info about prices, packages and other things can be found from their website (Celcom, Maxis, DiGi). The lowest speed (for 3G connections) is 384 kb/s and the highest is 3.6 Mb/s as for now but I've heard DiGi has 7.2 Mb/s, I'm not sure about that. Celcom claim that they are the no 1 mobile broadband in Malaysia. It has the widest coverage among those three, the second widest is Maxis and the least of course DiGi.
All three ISPs may claimed that they provide unlimited internet broadband, but in term of access only, not usage. Bear in mind that there is a different between unlimited access and unlimited usage. Celcom gives 5 GB, Maxis 3 GB and DiGi's limit ranging from 3 GB, 10 GB and 20 GB, depending on the packages, and of course the higher the numbers, the higher the price. For comparison about the fair usage policy, click here. In term of limited usage, DiGi is the best among those three. What happened if you have reached your limit? For Celcom and Maxis. you can still access the internet, but the speed will decrease, and trust me, its so damn slow. For DiGi, it will charge you for extra usage, until maximum amount and after that, the speed will decrease. Check their website for more info. And there is another telecommunication company that provide broadband service for internet, which is Umobile, but I don't have much info about it.

Last but not least, P1 Wimax. It is a new ISP and because of that, the coverage is still not wide enough. It is also a mobile internet broadband. There are several plans offered, for home and office use. The home plans speed ranging from 400kb/s and 2.4 Mb/s and for the office plans the speed are 1.2 Mb/s and 2.4 Mb/s. More info from their website. For home, usage are limited to 5 GB, 20 GB and 40 GB, according to the plans, but for the office, it's unlimited for both plans. The price is affordable, but there is a contract for minimum of 12 months. Customer also needs to by additional device, which is modem. The modem also needs power supply, thus making it not so mobile compares to 3G services.

So, which ISP suit you best? It depends on your usage. If you are a heavy user, and your usage per month is so huge numbers of GB, then you should go for Streamyx, but you need a fix line. But if you're a moderate user, and want to use internet anywhere you go, you can choose any mobile ISPs. As for me, I'll go for a ISP without contract, so that I can terminate anytime and go for a better one... :-p