StarHub to buy 33% stake in U Mobile?

U Mobile Sdn Bhd’s major shareholder Tan Sri Vincent Tan is said to have struck a deal to sell a 33% stake in the celco to Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte Ltd (STT) in a deal that could be worth RM626mil or RM5 a share.

It is learnt that a term sheet was signed this week by Tan’s company, U Television Sdn Bhd, and STT, the parent of Singapore’s second largest telco, StarHub.

Full article by B.K Sidhu of TheStar

Free E220 modem with UB68 data plan from U Mobile

U Mobile is offering this promotion again- Get a free Huawei E220 modem with the UB68 unlimited data plan.

I am not sure if this offer is available nationwide, but the deal is in conjunction of their 3G soft launch in Johor Bahru.

The brochure above(click for larger view) which was tweeted by UMobile claims that if anything goes wrong with the free modem, you need to go to their service centre in Taman Molek, Johor Bahru within 7 days(from the date of purchase) to make the exchange. As the modem does not has any warranty from Huawei, I assume that U Mobile is trying to "clear stock".

The offer is without contract and only be available starting tomorrow(31st Jan 2010) till 28 Feb 2010. There is an advance payment of RM199 which will used of offset the monthly chargers(more than 2 months of free usage).

A simple guide to choosing a Mobile Broadband service

Are you not decided on which mobile broadband service to choose? Here's a simple guide for you.
Before you read below, please check out my blog post on "Mobile Broadband is not for Everyone".

Coverage
If you are getting a mobile broadband service for use while traveling, choose between Maxis Broadband and Celcom Broadband. Celcom may have more 3G/2G coverage areas compared to Maxis in Malaysia but Maxis could offer faster speed than Celcom considering that Celcom Broadband has about 3 times more broadband subscribers than Maxis.

Conclusion: Go for Celcom Broadband when it comes to coverage.

Speed
Speed really depends on current network traffic and overall network subscribers. As Celcom has the highest number of mobile broadband subscribers(about 500k), I personally do not recommend Celcom Broadband if you are looking for speed.

You may choose between Maxis Broadband, P1 WiMAX, DiGi Broadband and U Broadband after you consider the options below based on your requirements:

Maxis Broadband- More than 100k broadband subscribers(may not get high speed all the time and in all areas), but it offers the best coverage among the 4 above.

P1 WiMAX- About 100K subscribers and speed is very much dependent on location and signal strength. Coverage is not there yet for mobile broadband but expanding aggressively.

U Broadband- Network is not congested and may offer you speed about 1Mbps at most of the time, but lack of good 3G coverage.

DiGi Broadband- Could offer high speed broadband at the moment but lack of good 3G coverage for mobile broadband.

Conclusion: It is a hard decision to make but if you are looking between standard coverage and speed than Maxis Broadband is recommended.

Price
From a price perspective, all of them (mobile broadband providers) have very attractive packages, as low as RM40. Some packages comes with USB modem as well. Refer their websites:

• Maxis Broadband
• Celcom Broadband
• U Broadband
• DiGi Broadband
• P1 WiMAX

Conclusion: Refer to the ISP websites


Note that experience on a mobile broadband service may vary depending on location and current traffic load that the network is handling. You may want to pick a package that offers a trial period before subscribing.

U Mobile to roam on DiGi EDGE Network

A domestic roaming agreement signed by U Mobile will allow its subscriber to roam on DiGi's EDGE network.

The deal will last for 3 years but the most interesting part of the agreement is this, U Mobile can't say when it can start roaming on DiGi's EDGE network. The reason? U Mobile's agreement with DiGi is exclusive but it has an existing domestic roaming agreement with Celcom.

I don't understand why this agreement is being announced when U Mobile can't say when the agreement will take effect. And secondly, this supports what I have been saying all these while that the Celcom network is overloaded. At this point, there are at least four MVNOs on the Celcom 2G network with Tune Talk to launch GPRS on a network that already has crawling Internet speed.

It is not clear how long U Mobile subscribers will be enjoying "crystal clear calls" on the Celcom's network and when will they benefit from the latest agreement with DiGi.

The domestic roaming agreement with DiGi includes GPRS and EDGE. I hope DiGi has prepared its EDGE network for an additional 100-200k subscribers from U Mobile.

The official story here.

New U Broadband Plans

U Mobile Broadband Team has come up with additional 3 new broadband plans.

One of the plan UB40 cost RM40 per month and comes with a 2GB of monthly data cap, not bad at all.

If you visit their roadshow at Sg. Wang Plaza within the next four days, you can sign up for the UB68 plan(RM68 per month) and take home a Huawei E220 modem for free.

Official story here or you can check out the U Broadband site.

Foreign Investors choose to exit U Mobile

U Mobile is reshaping again, probably the fourth time.

In April 2009, I made a blog post titled "Complications in U Mobile?" which reveals part of the issues that U Mobile is facing, even now, however the post was removed at the request of U Mobile with promise that they will respond to me. If you had been following my blog, you know that they never responded.

This time their two foreign investors are saying "Goodbye" to U Mobile. KTF in April 2009 said that it will be selling all its 16.5% stake in U Mobile, while last week DoCoMo also decided to do the same thing. It is reported that the departure of KTF and DoCoMo is because of their "disagreement with other shareholders over management", however there could be more reasons, but I guess I won't be able to share it here.

There has been talks/rumours that the new management team that has been put together by Tan Sri Vincent Tan involves an appointment of a CEO who was previously with Axiata. However this remains a possibility until U Mobile announce the new management team.

What U Mobile needs to do?

Here's a simple conclusion on the company:

Pricing: Not the lowest
Free Phones: Competitors has better offer
3G Coverage: Expanding but like a turtle
Advantage: None
Mistakes: Killing DVB-H, losing a number of good staffs, Kenneth Chang (Executive Director of U Mobile) is no longer running the day-to-day business at the company, foreign investors leaving, failed business plans.

First up, it needs to be different from the other telcos. When it first started, the company was shouting about its 1-second billing, apparently it is not working since the company only has close to a couple hundreds of thousand customers(not even 1% of the mobile market), plus their mobile plans has been the same for a very long time if compared to competitors.

On top of all these, I can confidently say that they have no advantage at all over their competitors. The question here is, what are the goals of U Mobile? Does it plan to capture the voice & sms market in Malaysia with their 3G spectrum?

As a 3G operator, what type of 3G services do they have? The last time I met one of the person in the content development team, they were still trying to learn about mobile contents! U Mobile has to re-look at their business plans- Who's their target of subscribers? What do these subscribers want?

In comparison to Tune Talk, the new MVNO company had 10,000 subscribers way before launching their service! If U Mobile wants to remain in the industry, it has to be aggressive, find the right people to run the company, and look above voice, SMS and even 3G! But right now, it is no where close to that.

Why should you use U Mobile when DiGi, Maxis and Celcom are better in all aspects (management, offering, investment)?

Related:

• U Mobile said to be in talks to get strategic investor
• Who will be U Mobile’s new strategic partner?

Complications in U Mobile?

This post has been taken down due to a request from U Mobile.

I am waiting for an official statement that will be published here.

Mobile Telecom Predictions for 2009

I know this post is extremely late and there has been lots of email since January about this. I apologize for that as I never had the time to write my predictions for 2009.

Here's a very short list on what to look out for in the local telecom industry this year:

Aggressive 3G services

I know that everyone has been saying that it is a year for 3G since it was launched like back in 2005(Celcom in May, Maxis in July and U Mobile in March, 2008). The reality is, 3G has a goal when it was introduced and I don't see that goal being achieved in Malaysia, yet.

3G was created to to offer high speed broadband services on the mobile phone. But till now, I don't see many people out there who are using 3G services and applications on their 3G phone. The only thing that the mobile operators could pride them self on 3G is the wireless broadband services that they are offering, an alternative broadband service to your fixed broadband service.

I am not going to talk about this further, but I hope to see more 3G service for mobile phones this year, such as services that make use of video call, maps/navigation services on phone, enhanced location based services, better online mobile payment, shopping services, music streaming, social networking and thousands of other services when you look at i-mode.

I know that most of these services are available, but I hope to see it coming from our very own telcos and more than 500 content developers in Malaysia out there.

World Economy: Impact on the Local Telecom Industry

I predict that the current world economy situation will have no impact on our local telecom industry. I don't see any reason why people will not SMS or talk less on their phone. That being said, however, people might not change phone as frequent as they did during the previous years.

In general, they should be no impact on our local mobile operators unless they have any business relationship with US-based companies.

WiMAX Heats Up

I have high hopes on P1 to drive the WiMAX and broadband adoption in Malaysia. You will see more WiMAX coverage areas as P1 expands their wireless coverage. On top of this, P1 will be launching their USB modem(MIMO supported) by Q3 this year(about June) and their new fixed WiMAX modem with VoIP support, replacing the current DS 300 model.

P1 does not seem to only focus on providing broadband service but also on content as well. Expect to see more content and services from Ruumz, an online social networking site created by Green Packet, the parent company of P1.

As for the other WiMAX players, personally, I don't expect and don't see much development from them although I must say that I do have a little hope for Asia Space since they are working on Digital Media Broadcasting (DMB) services. It is really interesting to see them trialling the service but I doubt that they could take it further since it involves a lot of investment while they are trying hard to expand their WiMAX coverage.

Asia Space DMB Receiver

It will also be great to see YTL e-Solutions to meet their own deadline this year but personally, I doubt it.

IPTV Services

Well, it is true that IPTV has nothing to do with mobile telecom. The reason I am talking about this is because it could drive the adoption of broadband services in this country. I like what Malaysian based-Syqic has to offer and their partnership with Hypp.TV. I believe that that they are working on a mobile IPTV application. Although they don't have high hopes on it, I hope to see them launching it with a mobile operator later this year.

Other local technology companies working on IPTV services includes MOL, TM , TIME, REDtone, WorldIP.TV and more.

Hope on MVNOs

I have not seen any serious impact from the current MVNOs players yet. When I last spoke to Jason Lo, the CEO of Tune Talk, he said that Tune Talk will be launching the services later this year. I am still trying to get more details about Celcom's investment on Tune Talk.

Another MVNO player appears to have some new developments too. Sumitomo Corporation of Japan has invested RM30 million in Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd. And why would a Japanese company do so, especially during the recession period?

As of January 2009, Merchantrade appears to have over 94,000 active subscribers and this is something positive. Hope to hear more about them this year.

Don't know whether if you still remember Happy, looks like Happy makes you sad afterall.

HSBB to Become Reality

As scheduled, TM should be rolling out the High Speed Broadband (HSBB) for wholesale on second quarter and for retail in the fourth quarter this year.

Speed should be starting from 10Mbps to 100 Mbps for residential customers and up to 1Gbps for businesses for high economic impact areas delivered via fibre optic infrastructure.

More Choices on Mobile Broadband

There has been many talks about 3G/LTE technology competing with WiMAX. I predict there will be more competition in the mobile broadband market once P1 launches their USB Modem. At the moment, only Asia Space offers a WiMAX USB modem, but it has limited coverage areas.

If the signs are right, I see that Celcom Broadband will be focusing more on their 3G broadband offering this year while Maxis Broadband could be coming up with more content and services. Competition between the 3G players will also heat up with DiGi 3G coming into the picture, however, DiGi needs to be aggressive in expanding their 3G coverage this year.

I don't have any predictions for U Mobile as for now. I believe there will be not much impact from U Mobile on the local mobile industry this year, unless if they are able to offer more broadband packages, expand their 3G coverage areas and also launch their much awaited DVB-H services.

NetBook is the Killer Mobile Device

I expect to see more Netbook offerings this year to complement the mobile broadband services. The attractive offerings should be coming from the mobile operators and also the WiMAX operators. If things goes as plan, there should be WiMAX-powered notebook/netbook devices sometime this year.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 with Maxis Broadband is a good bundle but I hope to see something more attractive with complete wireless broadband service(Maxis Broadband is included for the first 6 months only). Also expect to see some attractive netbook offerings from Celcom within the next few weeks.


P/s: If you think I have missed something, kindly post a comment.

U Mobile Sou Mobile Phone

Here's something that will surprise you- The U Mobile Sou mobile phone

U Mobile Sou does not surprise me at all because with most of the head department(U Mobile) and CEO is Japanese or Korean and it is natural for them do so(build their own phone) because the company they came from practices the same thing.

In Japan, NTT DoCoMo as an operator controls the mobile market there. It tells the mobile phone maker what type of phone to build and also has strong influence in the local mobile content market in Japan.

U Mobile Sou has the following specification:

• Dual Sim
• 3G
• FM
• Video Call
• 2.0 Megapixel camera
• MicroSD
• Bluetooth
• USB
• 16 million colors, TFT screen

The U Mobile Sou phone is price for as low as RM510 and as high as RM760(Refer to table below). You can also buy the Sou for RM988 without contract.


The U Mobile Sou is distributed by Mobile Distribution (M) Sdn Bhd.

U Mobile has not made any official announcement on the U Mobile Sou, please refer to the Mobile World website for the official announcement within the next few weeks.

As for now, you can read a short review of U Mobile Sou on the Fresh Gear Blog.

Experience on U Mobile Prepaid

I am currently trying out the U Mobile Prepaid plan and I have to say that the 1 second billing do make a big difference especially when you are making a few seconds call.

I also find their customer service friendly. I dropped the call while waiting for the U Mobile customer service representative to pick up, about 3 minutes later someone from customer service called me back. This is world class customer service although I doubt things won't be the same when they start gaining more customers.

U Mobile is offering 20% more airtime when you top up. Also for every RM10 used, you get 10 free SMS. As for MNP, U Mobile will give you a free starter with RM10 credit preloaded if your porting process fails. Read more here.

You can also use U Mobile on 2G phones since U Mobile has domestic roaming agreement with Celcom. I have not experienced any problems using U Mobile on a 2G phone(Celcom) and the only downside is you can't use GPRS or 3G on Celcom network.

Note that the prepaid starter pack is free with a RM10 top up and you must use the top up within 7 days, if not, you will loose the number.

Check out the U Mobile prepaid rates here.

Last Friday, U Mobile has just launched free calls and 1 sen per SMS within their network.-Full report

It only crossed the 100,000 subscribers mark last July and now it is offering free calls within the network. I wonder how this is going to effect their ARPU.

Anyway, I better start enjoying my free calls now before it is too late.

MNP is now avilable

PRESS STATEMENT MINISTER OF ENERGY, WATER AND COMMUNICATIONS
ON MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY


From tomorrow (29 August 2008), prepaid users may change their cellular phone providers, if they wish, and still keep their mobile phone numbers. For the time being, this service - MobileNumberPortability (MNP) -will be available in the Klang Valley on a limited basis.

In two weeks’ time, post-paid users will also be able to enjoy the service. The nationwide launch of the service will be in October.

MNP takes away the inconvenience associated with switching service providers. Consumers will
no longer need to worry about losing their contacts when changing service providers.

Service providers are allowed to charge up to RM25 each time a subscriber changes his/her service provider. This will give mobile phone users choice and freedom to choose their service providers without the inconvenience of having to change their numbers.

Those who wish to sign up for the service are advised to contact any of the mobile service providers – Celcom, Maxis, DiGi and U-Mobile.

Each of these companies will have five service centres all over the Klang Valley to entertain MNP requests.

Subscribers can refer to the Frequently-Asked-Questions on Mobile Number Portability here, and all of the mobile operator’s websites to find out more about the location of the service centres, MNP in general, the porting process and its benefits.

MNP is about improved service quality, better packages, better customer service and giving consumers choice.

Initially, only individual account holders will be able to change their service companies. Business accounts may do so after the nationwide launch in October.

Subscribers are advised that until the nationwide launch, each service provider will only be able to accept 100 requests per day. However, additional requests will still be accepted but placed in queue for the following day.

Prepaid users are advised to finish their prepaid balances before they change their service providers as any remaining balances will not be refunded. Subscribers are advised not to rush into porting but should first study the various packages being offered before choosing the new service provider of their choice.

(source)

List of the mobile operator service centre that you can port your number

Corporate Restructuring in U Mobile

U Mobile, the third 3G operator in Malaysia is undergoing some corporate changes now.

It is confirmed that it's Executive Director,Kenneth Chang Yit Fei will no longer involve in U Mobile's day to day business.

What is surprising, barely 3 months after the appointment of its new CEO Yun Hae-Jung, U Mobile now has appointed a new CEO again as it is believed that Mr.Yun Hae-Jung, who is not that old, resigned due to "health" problems.

The new CEO of U Mobile is Oh Kwang-Jin however Telco Talk Malaysia was not informed about his appointment, so I am not sure whether he is originated from the same company as Yun Hae-Jung, since 2 foreign companies has a joint 33% stake in U Mobile.

However, I believe the peoples from the earlier appointments remains in U Mobile including chief marketing officer Keisuke Yoshizawa who is from Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc., new chief technology officer Choi Kab Ryeol and chief strategy and planning officer Jason Lee Dong Ik from KTF, which is named in the Guiness Book of Records for having acquired the most number of subscribers in the shortest span of time.

Only time will tell whether U Mobile will live up to its promises as being a "consumer centric" brand or it will be just another company of the Berjaya Group of companies.

More products from U Mobile launched

New Prepaid and Postpaid plans from U Mobile. There is also a new mobile broadband package.

The prepaid starter pack is free, however, according to Malaysian law, a user can only have up to 10 mobile numbers.

The new U98 postpaid plan offers a free Motorola V9 phone or you can purchase other phone models at a special price, and a 18 months contract applies.

018 Prepaid

Rates

Cost of Starter Pack: Free
Voice & Video Calls* -0.8sen/sec (48sen/min)
SMS* -8sen/SMS
MMS* -25sen/MMS
Data Service (3G+HSDPA) -1sen/kb
Voice Mail -48sen/call
Video Mail -0.8sen/sec (48sen/min)
Free Value Added Services -CLIP (Caller Line Identification Presentation), Missed Call Notification, Call waiting/Call holding, Call forwarding, Multi-party Call Conferencing, IDD

*No peak/off-peak, all networks. Additional charges apply. International Roaming not available

Product Name: 018 Prepaid
Availability: July 1, 2008
Other Features: Video calls same rate as voice calls, per-second billing, nationwide domestic roaming(Celcom Network).

Update: U Mobile is giving out additional 20% bonus airtime for every successful top-up with effect 1st July 2008


U38 Postpaid Plan

Rates

Voice & Video Calls* -0.3sen/sec (18sen/min to 018), 0.4sen/sec (24sen/min to other networks)
SMS -5sen/SMS to 018, 15sen/SMS to other numbers
MMS -18sen/MMS to 018, 28sen/MMS to other numbers
Data Service (3G+HSDPA) -Free for first 2 months after that 1sen/kb (Capped at RM176)
VoiceMail -18sen/call
VideoMail -0.3sen/sec (18sen/min)
Free Value Added Services -CLIP (Caller Line Identification Presentation), Call Waiting/Call Holding, Call Forwarding, Multi-party Conferencing, Missed Call Notification

*No peak/off-peak. Additional charges apply. IDD and International Roaming available upon request

Product Name: U38 Plan
Pricing: RM38/Month (to offset voice/video calls, SMS, MMS)
Contract Period: No contract period
Availability: Now (new rates take affect July 1, 2008)
Other Features: Video calls same rate as voice calls, per-second billing, free U Mobile Broadband for two months, Mobile LiveTV (availability is phone dependent), nationwide domestic roaming


U68 Postpaid Plan

Rates

Voice & Video Calls* -0.2sen/sec (12sen/min)
SMS -5sen/SMS to 018, 15sen/SMS to other numbers
MMS -18sen/MMS to 018, 28sen/MMS to other numbers
Data Service (3G+HSDPA) -1sen/kb (Capped at RM176)
VoiceMail -12sen/call
VideoMail -0.2sen/sec (12sen/min)
Free Value Added Services -CLIP (Caller Line Identification Presentation), Call Waiting/Call Holding, Call Forwarding, Multi-party Conferencing, Missed Call Notification

* No peak/off-peak. Additional charges apply. IDD and International Roaming available upon request

Product Name: U68 Plan
Pricing: RM68/Month (to offset voice/video calls, SMS,MMS)
Contract Period: No contract period
Availability: July 1, 2008
Other Features: Video calls same rate as voice calls, per-second billing, Mobile LiveTV(availability is phone dependent), nationwide domestic roaming


U98 Postpaid Plan

Rates

Voice & Video Calls* -0.2sen/sec (12sen/min)
SMS -5sen/SMS to 018, 15sen/SMS to other numbers
MMS -18sen/MMS to 018, 28sen/MMS to other numbers
Data Service (3G+HSDPA) -1sen/kb (Capped at RM176)
VoiceMail -12sen/call
VideoMail -0.2sen/sec (12sen/min)
Free Value Added Services -CLIP (Caller Line Identification Presentation), Call Waiting/Call Holding, Call Forwarding, Multi-party Conferencing, Missed Call Notification

Product Name: U98 Plan
Pricing: RM98/Month (to offset voice/video calls, SMS, MMS)
Contract Period: 18 Months with phone bundling (subsidised)
Availability: July 1, 2008
Other Features: Video calls same rate as voice calls, per-second billing, Mobile LiveTV(availability is phone dependent), nationwide domestic roaming, phone bundling
Mobile Phone Options: Nokia N77, Nokia N78, Nokia 3120 Classic, Nokia E51, Sony Ericsson G502, Sony Ericsson C702, Samsung i780, Samsung Z140, LG KU970 Shine, Motorola V9 Free

New Surf With U Package

Monthly Fee- RM68/month (promotional fee RM58/month applicable till December 31, 2008)
USIM Card- Included (for standalone subscriptions only)
USB Modem- Not included

*phone dependent and recommended for use in USB modems only.

Add-On
Upon request users can add-on Surf with U service to U Mobile postpaid plan subscription.

Standalone
A standalone data plan with a SIM card* to use with the user’s own HSDPA modem. Subscription to U Mobile postpaid plan not required.

"Unlimited" Limited Broadband

Are you are mobile broadband subscriber? Which mobile broadband plan are you subscribed to?

Do you know that some broadband plans out there, which are so called "unlimited plans" but has a cap or maximum use limit in it?

Maxis

One of the mobile company that redefines the word "unlimited" is MAXIS which offers UNLIMITED Internet2Go browsing package that comes with a 3GB browsing limit.


According to Dictionary.com, the word "Unlimited" refers to:

• not limited; unrestricted; unconfined: unlimited trade
• boundless; infinite; vast: the unlimited skies
• without any qualification or exception; unconditional
  

Celcom

As for Celcom, they do not claim their broadband limited or unlimited leaving their users in the dark.

In small letters, located at the terms and conditions section, under Fair Usage Policy, Celcom says that it will manage the users bandwidth if their usage exceeds 5GB within the month. In other words, from getting up to 3.6Mbps on Celcom Broadband, you will be getting, for an example up to 100Kbps if you exceed the 5GB limit on Celcom Broadband.

U Mobile

U Mobile does not claim its Surf With U as limited, in the same time, it does not mention unlimited either. But according to its Fair Usage Policy, in small letters, customers should not exceed a 5GB data usage in a month.

However, it does not mention what happens if the customer exceeds the 5GB usage in a particular month. This is somehow confusing.

Conclusion

So, either the Government should send these people back to school or the consumer should take them to court.

If you want to make a complaint, contact:

Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC)
Email: aduanskmm@cmc.gov.my
Hotline: 1800-888-030 (8.30 am - 5.30 p.m, Mondays-Friday)
Fax: 03-8688 1880
Or make an online complaint here.

U Mobile to launch Prepaid service

Yes, that is just what I have heard. Now, U Mobile is coming up with a prepaid service around this month.

Looks like they have upgraded their HSDPA network. For the first time, I feel Surf With U is performing at its best.

Note: TheStar says U Mobile is a MVNO. Probably the journalist should do some research between MVNO and domestic "roaming" before writing that article. Now thousands of reader will be confused.

Better Telcos, weaker Authorities?

I have met the CEO of Celcom, the CEO of DiGi and the CEO of Maxis.

After meeting with this 3 key peoples in 3 strong telcos, I have got a strong feeling that all three telcos are now towards a right direction in the industry.

Maxis, in my own opinion, is a company that is hard to approach but things seems to change with Sandip Das leading the company. I hope "some" of these people in Maxis who pride them self being number 1 to change their attitude and start focusing in maintaining and proving better services to their customers. And this is what I see in Sandip Das that being number 1 does not matter to him.

While Celcom has a good corporate culture, I am predicting that Celcom will have stronger branding and competing mobile services this year comparing to the other 2 players.

DiGi, on the other hand has a good CEO. Since Johan has worked as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in DiGi for some time, it should not be a problem for him to carry the CEO's task, plus I believe he is the man for the task with his expertise on marketing and finance. Although DiGi has been quiet, in my opinion for more than a year, things will change since DiGi NOW HAS A 3G LICENSE OFFICIALLY.

U Mobile now gets a new Korean CEO which I believe that it is going to take longer than expected to storm the market with its Executive Director, Kenneth Chang no longer involving in U Mobile's day to day business.

I have a strong feeling that things are going to change with Keng Yaik's exit. Although not sure it is good or bad for the industry, the telecom authorities will sure create a strong impact on the market. I still don't see any WiMAX launch, plus the 3.5 GHz is now officially out of business, again I doubt that we will see WiMAX at all with the earliest one to be on June. The Government at any time, could say "interference" and pull back the 4 licenses.

With Mobile Number Portability, expected to launch by August this year, it will definitely change the game plan of all telcos and benefit the consumers like you and me.

Now I see better telcos, but, am I seeing a weaker Ministry and a weaker Commission?

Surf With U road test: Update 1

Looks like U Mobile was upgrading its HSPDA network.

The Surf With U is a little bit faster today.

Probably will have to re-do the test.

Surf With U road test

I have just completed the road test for U Mobile's Surf With U.

Since this product was launched, may people where asking for my opinion on this product. Some questions include:

• How fast is it? Have you tested it?
  
• Should I subscribe to it? Is it value for money?
• Is it better than Celcom broadband and Maxis broadband?

My simple answer was, "U Mobile is a new company, imagine a HIGHWAY without cars, that is just how U Mobile is right now without much customers".

I was wrong!! The road test results did not turned out as I predicted.

The Surf With U road test will be featured on May issue of Mobile World Magazine while part of the roadtest will appear on Mobile World TV.

U Mobile to launch postpaid plan next week

Finally, U Mobile is making its first wave in to the Malaysia Mobile market. It will soon offer its first postpaid package next week.

U Mobile launch its first product last month.

Official report on the Mobile World website, next week.

Maxis still "deciding" on which technology for MobileTV

I was at the Maxis Discovery Series last Wednesday on Level 8, Maxis Headquarters. Maxis launched 3 new services(read more here).

When asked the top 3 people in Maxis about why Maxis conducted trials on DVB-H and MediaFLO, and yet to choose one of it, Maxis Head of Strategy and New Businesses said in simple word that "We are not decided yet". In the same time during the press conference, Maxis CEO Mr. Sandip Das added "We will follow the market trend. If the Europen Union has chosen DVB-H and the GSM Association has made its choice, we will follow".

The CEO admitted that MediaFLO is better that DVB-H but choosing the right Mobile TV technology is very much depending on where will the world Telecom market is heading.

So for, only U Mobile has a DVB-H license for Mobile TV. It seems that the MCMC favors DVB-H compared to a better technology like MediaFLO.

To know why MedioFLO is better than DVB-H, read my article on Mobile World Magazine(April 2008 issue), page 52.

Here are some latest stats of Maxis:

• 1.7 million 3G subscribers with 0.5 million non active 3G users and 1.3 million active 3G users

• 2.8 million active data users(GPRS,EDGE,3G,HSDPA)

• 1.2 million Friend Finder users(active+non-active)

• 1.2 million active MMS users

• 15-20 million hits on Maxis wap portal every month

• more than 100 million SMS a day