Posts Tagged ‘celcom’

Erk! Denial Of Service?

Friday, February 12th, 2010

That was my initial reaction anyway when I saw the latest advertisement from Celcom touting their wireless 3G broadband service.  It’s in the fine print, and as I always wanted to be a lawyer, I normally read the fine print, because sometimes, there’s a lot of gems in there, more so than those big words in the advertisement themselves.

So, check out the advert below.  It’s on page N5 in today’s Star newspaper.  Celcom claims that while they have a fair usage policy of 5GB monthly, irrespective of which plan you’re on, they don’t deny you service if you go over limit.  Denial of service means they deny you service completely, obviously.  Which means, they cut you off.  Which means, you can’t connect if you use up more than 5GB monthly.  No, Celcom doesn’t do that.  But they do throttle you down depending on your plan – if you’re on the cheaper plan, it’s throttled to 64kbps, best effort, and on the more expensive plan, 128kbps, best effort.  Most times, you probably won’t even approach anywhere near those “best effort” speeds, haha.  Some would of course say that 64/128kbps is already denial of service – after all, who in their right minds would want to use the internet at those speeds?  Even my puppy laughs at those pitiful bandwidth!

So, are they making this claim because other carriers, specifically Maxis, DiGi and U Mobile deny their users service if they above the monthly data allowance?  Not as far as I know – all practise bandwidth capping like Celcom.  And if they do, then what’s the point of Celcom advertising this fact then – is it to “fill up white space” so the advertisement doesn’t look devoid of any useful information?

And of course some would say that even without breaching the monthly data quota, the wireless broadband speeds in this country is also akin to denial of service!

Have your say!  Please, keep those insults polite – I have no wish to spend my Chinese New Year editing rude comments!

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SonyEricsson Xperia X10 To Drop In April In UK

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Hhmm…quite a bit of SonyEricsson news lately, which is atypical.  Vodafone, one of the UK’s largest wireless carriers, announced that the SonyEricsson (SE) Xperia X10, SE’s first Android smartphone, will be available on the Vodafone network this coming April.

Due to the close working relationship between Celcom and Vodafone (a lot of Celcom’s stuff are Voda branded, such as USB wireless broadband dongles and Celcom’s Blackberry phones), we would most likely see the X10 offered in some package on Celcom’s network soon after.  That is, assuming that Google has gotten its act together regarding the availability of the Android Market in Malaysia.  Hopefully.  God willing…

No indication of pricing at the moment.  Click here to see the pre-order page on Vodafone’s UK website.

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Celcom Storms (2) Ahead [UPDATED]

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Well, it looks like Celcom has managed to deliver another sucker punch to Maxis yet again, this time, with its earlier launching of the RIM Blackberry Storm 9520, otherwise known as the Storm 2.  Hopefully the Storm 2 will have none of the problems and issues which plagued the original Storm.  If not for the Apple iPad, this would have been one of the devices on my shopping list this year, but alas, I only have a very limited amount of money to spend, what with the children’s overseas education coming up, etc.

So, if you’re one of the lucky 50 150 to show up at the launching tomorrow at Chinoz in KLCC, you’re entitled to 50% off the retail price of the 9520, whatever Celcom deems this to be (I have no idea what the RRP for the 9520 is).  It also probably requires you to sign a significant portion of your adult life away to Celcom on one of their plans in return for this special favour of being able to buy the 9520 at 50% off.

The advertisement is in today’s Star newspaper, page N9.  We now await Maxis’ counter punch, if they’re still standing!  Come on Maxis!

[UPDATE] A reader has pointed me in the right direction to be enlightened.  Click here for the low down on this offer.  As expected, one needs to sign up with a contract with Celcom to enjoy this offer.  The offer price is RM 888 while the full retail price is supposed to be RM 1,988.  Now, I may be rather stupid at math, but even I can tell that the RM 888 is more than 50% off the retail price, is it not?  So, what could be a better deal than this just before the Chinese New Year?  Nothing, I tell you!  Now, don’t go trampling over any grandmothers and grandfathers as you rush there for your unit tomorrow, ‘k?

And if Celcom or their PR representatives are reading this, can you make this blogger happy by extending a unit to him as well, without him having to brave the maddening crowds during Friday’s rush hour in the heart of the city?  ;-)

Thanks, wilson lim!

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Blackberry Storm 2 aka 9520 On Celcom Soon

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Don’t we just love it when all three major celcos in the country try to vie for a share of our wallets?  Celcom, which claims to have 52% of the Blackberry market in Malaysia, as well as claiming to be the largest Blackberry seller in Southeast Asia, has advertised the availability of the 9520, otherwise known as the Storm 2, the successor to the not-so-successful Storm 1.  In a newspaper advertisement today, Celcom confirmed its (future) availability, as part of its annual sales campaign.  According to the Star, the 9520 will be available in early February, at a price yet to be announced; the packages are probably the standard ones where one can choose from the Executive plan 50, with a minimum RM50 monthly commitment, plus the Celcom Broadband Advance plan valued at RM 98, making a minimum monthly commitment of RM 148, to enjoy some small subsidy on the retail price of the phone.  I think the contract period is two years, as is usually the case with Celcom plans where the price of the mobile phone is subsidised.

Celcom claims to be targetting a sales volume of 70,000 units of various Blackberry models this calendar year, which translates to around 5,833 units monthly – difficult to say whether this is realistic or not without any sales reference numbers for other popular handsets.  But I am guessing this is all based on past performance, so it most likely has some basis in fact.  It’s nice to know that RIM is also pushing aggressively into the consumer space in Malaysia, just like it is in other parts of the world – it means consumers now have a rich picking of mobile operating systems to choose from.

There is still no word on when and whether Maxis and DiGi will be offering the Storm 2.

What do you think about the Storm 2?  Are you getting one?  I’m guessing the price will be in the region of RM 2,299 to RM 2,499.

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Celcom Launches Blackberry Bold 9700

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Well, this is not too bad, actually.  Less than a month after RIM launched the Blackberry 9700, aka Bold 2 in Singapore, Malaysians are now able to enjoy it as well.  We’re not *that* far down the food chain at all, perhaps ranking slightly above Burkina Faso in importance, I think.  Celcom, most likely in conjunction with its annual sale, is offering 150 units of the 9700 at a special price of RM 988 tomorrow only, from 430pm to 730pm (or earlier, if half of KL turns up to buy), if one signs up for (24 months?) one of their plans/packages at a minimum of RM 148 monthly (thanks, mamakap!).

Thanks to alvin, my good friend, for alerting me in the shoutbox as well!  So, what are you waiting for?  Head on down here for all the juicy details.  Personally, I’m more inclined to get a Storm 2 myself, since I happen to adore touchscreen phones (no prizes for guessing what my favourite phone is!).

Apparently the retail unlocked, contract free price of the Bold 2 aka 9700 is in the region of RM 2,200 should you choose to go this route.  And because there are only 150 units available tomorrow afternoon, I suggest you start to head over to Pavilion now and plan to spend the night camping outside to ensure you are one of the lucky 150.  Remember the last limited-units offer we had?  ;-)

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