Then a scream shattered the silence as Packet One or P1, the sales and marketing arm of Green Packet announced the launch of their internet services.
There are two services made available to public at limited coverage locations in Klang Valley. The two wireless technologies offered are based the licensed WIMAX spectrum solution and the other, using Wi-Fi technology based on unlicensed ISM band.
Service availability are mainly within the Subang and Sunway vicinity in Selangor and Gombak and Sentul area in Kuala Lumpur.
What are being offered apart from the basic internet access services?
a) Priority broadband subscription (this should be access service with a defined SLA - to ensure that the required quality delivery is rendered as opposed to the abominable "best effort" access services by other internet service providers in Malaysia)
b) VoIP services (calling cards)
c) Basic IP surveillance service (Similar to the existing services offered by the mobile players that I had earlier written on here.)
Its too early to comment on anything else, apart from the fact that :
a) this is the first company in Malaysia to launch the WIMAX service (this is funny since the WIMAX standard is not fully finalized - to my knowledge, only Korea had a similar technology launched called WiBro.. but that was based on the the national IT blueprint which allows the country to isolate themselves from external standards and focus on the national agenda despite the technology being proprietary)
b) the coverage reach is still very small, I would have expected a more bigger footprint given that they have been offering wi-fi services prior to the Wimax launch
c) Cost of subscription is TOO expensive.. there are still upfront charges (at the moment the modem; being priced at RM 999, is given away FOC under the promotional banner - but.. a RM 100 for registration fee? wow!!then there's activation fee and stamp duty fee.. )
And after the stipulated promotional rates... the normal rate plans are as follow :
Anyways, we'll see how they will perform in the near future. P1 has a target of 40,000 subscribers by end of this year and 100,000 within 12 months.
There are also other big projects that seem to be lined up for P1 in the near future, an interesting one would be on the Metropolitan wide wireless access project that they had recently been awarded.
I am not one of those who is fascinated by specific technology.. because the technology is just an enabler.. its the business sense that matters. In my recent experience with people from P1.. the technology seems to be the pride.
Based on pressure from the government, there are news on other Wimax operators entering the market soon, with YTL announcing the possible date for launch next month.
