Internet connection, has been, somewhat very important to me. I have a habit of constantly checking email, every now and then. Even my pc installed with gmail notifier, i still do a lot of time click on ‘inbox’ link to check if there’s new mail. While on the move, i keep on refreshing the ‘home’ in IE, yup.. gmail. It’s not some kind of illness hopefully. I’ve tried all kind of wireless internet connection available in Malaysia, the latest one is 3G, and how are they compared as I experience it?

Celcom 3G Datacard Case and Card In Action

Apart from email, I use my PDA to read important feeds through my RSS reader and news as well, participate in forums, doing quick research and even post blog entry. The first thing in the morning I do when I wake up before going to bathroom is to check email and download all RSS. Later before going to work, while waiting for my wife sending Nadiah to babysitter house or while breakfast, I’ll finish up reading all of that.

When I started working in KL, internet connection was not a problem to me because i was single, pretty much all free time that i had, i will spend it in the office. Eating, sleeping, bathing, my office is my house. And i wasn’t as mobile as today, therefore, Internet always with me. Then, when i moved to Pelangi D’sara, there was no broadband connection available, EDGE wasn’t rolled out yet, don’t ever dream of 3G. Fixed line wasn’t even there, so stop dreaming of streamyx. Luckily, few months later, Time wireless broadband was launched named webbit and my housing area covered, thank god. Imagine, Petaling Jaya, suppose to be a modern city of Selangor, no broadband. duhhh, so lame. My neighbors flock to Time, subscribe to their service, bought together wireless access point package, that time 802.11b is the fastest, and thankfully they are not very smart. I got free internet connection :-D, I guess i don’t have to explain in detail here, you are smarter than them. webbit… webbitt… sound like frog. Webbit, does not like rabbit at all, it was so slow, slower than dial-up, and its like they implement QoS where some applications felt fast some very slow. I’m not sure their service still exist or not yet, one thing to note is that Time is one of the license holder for 3G spectrum, right now I think they just keep in their closet.

Starting mid 2005, especially early 2006, I constantly on the move, and actually moved somewhere else too, Gombak. My new house, got no neighbor with access point, none. I have no choice but to go with pay per use. Luckily Celcom GPRS pay per use is the cheapest and gmail have interface for mobile device, so the charge wasn’t very much. I don’t use POP access even though my xphone have the client due to some reasons. But my internet usage is growing, I need to do more task then just check and read email on the move. I also use the same connection to connect to internet from my notebook. And later, when i have PDA and need to develop application for it, pay per use was no longer feasible. Just about time, DiGi have a promo package for supplementary data sim of only RM30 per month and my client asked me if i interested to get his supplementary card, shared payment, Sure did. (RM90 + RM30) / 2 = RM60.00, for unlimited data usage plan EDGE speed, data only, no SMS and no call, just what i need. For calls, my minutes plan from Celcom works best for me, saving me hundreds of ringgit every month. There’s actually much better package from Celcom, ‘Celcom Power Tools’ but i have to change number, in that case, assalammualaikum for now. Now is the sixth month i use EDGE, and i must say, i’m pretty happy with it. Though the application is quite limited, but for normal usage, RM60.00 per month, everywhere i go, more than ok already. When DiGi lost the bid for 3G spectrums, their share price dropped 20 cents, but regains the following day. Not having 3G license means they have to bank on their EDGE service, and I must say, their coverage is pretty impressive.

However, this is about to change. For some reason, the card cannot be use ‘temporarily’. And last saturday, I received yet another better package, RM60.00 per month, Celcom 3G unlimited data plan (again, data only) with Data Card from huawei, heck, same price better value. I’m started imagining application i can use with 3G. DiGi have two connection mode, GPRS and EDGE, wherever no EDGE service it will fall back to GPRS, wherever no fugly yellow dressed guy follow me, it will fall back to, err… rock. Celcom also have two modes, 3G and GPRS. Currently, only maxis have all three modes available, 3G-EDGE-GPRS, but I don’t like maxis, they are for yuppies and wannabes. Like what advertised by DiGi, the largest coverage of high speed internet access, is true. My kampung house have EDGE connection, I guess right now, about three fugly yellow dressed guy dancing and singing around me, ‘I’ll follow you…..’ because my PDA shown 3 bar signal strength heheh…

Get what i mean?
And did u spot 3 Not a Number? Bad programming…

Because the activation time is only on mon-fri 9-5, i cannot activate the card until today, MiKi helped with the activation. As usual they told us to wait for 1 to 2 hours and as usual it can be use straight away, 2 hours just in case something happen on their side i guess, just to be safe. However, if something does happen, 2 hours will not do. Better if they say, from 1 hour to 1 week, after one week if you still cannot use the card, u can contact us back sir. So excitedly, i tested the 3G connection, so called mobile broadband. My office is in Bangsar, Bangsar is located in Bangsarlah, no need to tell where la dey, it’s a prominent area in KL, and guess how much is the signal strength? Barely 1 bar, switching back and forth 3G - GPRS. God. This is awful. No successful connection made either. Now I’m at home, Tuesday 1:22am, posting this using DiGi EDGE. What actually happen to the Celcom 3G? I can only continue this tomorrow, need to continue reading, it’s already 19th December.

Hope i have masa lapang as in free time tomorrow; I’ll finish this and add some pictures too.

As I arrived to office today, the first thing I had to do was, you guessed it wrong; I had to go to toilet, gagaga… It’s natural what, don’t tell me you don’t go to toilet. Turn on my notebook, check important mail, download pure shores sent by wifey, luv u larling, mwahss.. Listening to this beautiful song, repeatedly. It’s now the time, insert the E600 data card, bring on the HUAWEI E600 Data Card software, and yeah, as I expected it, single teeny weeny bar of 3G signal. Let test it, connect c… o… n… n… e… c… t… i… n… g… connected. Wasn’t that long, it’s like, connect – connected hehe. hmm, one thing to note, first time successful connection with successful internet access and the speed is quite ok considering only 1 bar on the signal strength. Nope, I haven’t download torrent yet. Let test it for few days and see how it works. Hopefully better. I guess it take time for the E600 card to get along with my notebook, after one day, they finally become friend and now can talk to each other. I want to test it at home again tonight; hopefully can use the data card instead of Bluetooth connection with my PDA. Last night was very frustrating; the signal just doesn’t stick, like biscuit until I have to finally switch back to Bluetooth. No excuse for low signal strength because on my phone, it shown 3-4 bar for celcom line, on the data card, it shows 4, 3, 2 and then 0 and then 4 and 2 and 1 and then 0 and then I sound like kindergarten student. Let me test this 3G first, then I’ll update this post again
Boring…

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