There's a new telco in town.

http://www.u.com.my

They are providing 3.5G HSDPA access with nationwide coverage. I just saw the event at MidValley just now.

Perhaps you guys can consider this as a wireless ISP?

Cheers.

So this is MiTV's 018?

this is mitv but last month if not mistaken, they change mitv to umobile

Where exactly in MidValley are they having the roadshow? I checked MidValley's website for events, but there's no listing for u-mobile at all...

Anyone know what the package they offer??? Can't get any info from their website???

yup mitv...running on celcom 3g transmission infra...so a good coverage i should say...

3.5G la it's HSDPA

wr6969: Right in the middle foyer as you enter midvalley from the main starbucks entrance. In front of G2000 there. It's a huge Nokia event promoting their new phones which can play live TV channels on your phone using umobile.

ya ya...whatever u like to call it...its still 3g...

Thanks much for the information. I'll try to drop in and check it out tomorrow. About time I paid the Gardens a visit to see what's it all about anyway. What kind of promos are they running there, just out of curiosity, if you know? If you need to buy a Nokia phone to qualify, I'll avoid it like the plague!

The website talks more about the company and not the services. So where do we refer for services?

Any website related to this?

Just go to Midvalley center court ground floor la, there's a bench there with sales agents from Dynacom. They are selling the umobile subscription.

More Info!!!! the technical spec used to broadcast video to phone by umobile is 'DVB-H'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-H

Cheers.

...but the problem is...we leave in East Malaysia....

IMO...their web site lack about the services information...

Ok guys, here's so info on the pricing.

umobile is currently FREE and here's what you get...

FREE unlimited 3G/3.5G/GPRS data
FREE unlimited calls and sms to 018 numbers
FREE monthly line rental
FREE caller ID, voicemail, bla bla bla
FREE Mobile TV subscription using the DVB-H broadcasting method

In my opinion it's a great deal la... coz of the free unlimited 3.5G data... can use as broadband already.

Once again pop by Midvalley to check it out and play around with the Nokia N77.

The public IP that you'll get with MITV is very nice.. 123.xxx.xxx.xxx

cyclonite (thankyou for the info),

Wah!!!...very nice Oooo...everything looks free to me.... . Hopely no hidden charges or whatsoever...

Question...how one over here (East Malaysia) can register aaah? and what the basic setup requirement (phone..?)

TIA

East Malaysia?? In East Malaysia you would just use a dial up modem coz you don't have anything else hahahah j/k...

Keep in mind umobile rides on top of Celcom's network. I've tried Skype webcamming with someone in Kuching with a Celcom 3G connection and it worked although a little slow.

the umobile offer is a promotion with the Nokia N77 phone. It's now the only phone (brought into Malaysia) that can receive DVB-H broadcasts. Buy the phone and you'll get umobile for free with everything I said above.

about the N77 phone itself, in my opinion it's too thick and big for a candybar phone... for girls it should be just fine... also, it lacks WiFi which is a real turn off.

monthly fees to pay for all listed pakage?
it's pay once only?

I just did some quick research and here are my observations:

(1) the phone is retailing at RM 1,999 with all the "freebies" mentioned until 31st March 2008

(2) what the charges are beyond 31st March 2008, no one knows. You could be paying through your nose for this service, or it could remain free, or...<insert appropriate cynicism here>

(3) although they claim you enjoy 3.5G, the N77 is not a 3.5G phone. Even Nokia Europe's website says so. The phone is limited to 3G speeds. Therefore, what is the use of promising 3.5G when all you get is a 3G capable phone? And swapping SIMS between the N77 and another phone/datacard to enjoy HSDPA/3.5G doesn't sit well with me

I'll post additional observations when I discover them. At the moment, this doesn't sound like *that* good a deal, especially when their coverage, reliability of service, and wireless broadband speed is really, really, really unknown.

cy_an:

No pay once and No monthly fees... just buy the phone (N77)

wr6969:

We can already tell some of the charges if you look at the current promotion brochure, there's a red line striking out the 'original price' and replacing that figure with the work FREE for now. For example, the MobileTV broadcast service over DVB-H is normally at RM28/month if I'm not mistaken.

Beyond March 2008, umobile will likely charge high because they know w/o them as a Telco you can no longer receive the DVB-H broadcasts so they can monopolise the market.

Regarding coverage, I couldn't agree more with you.... I'm not even sure whether can continue receiving the video feeds on the road or at home... maybe they set up a transmitter in MidValley just for demo kekekeke...

Regarding the 3.5G network, it's riding on top of Celcom so it's the same.

---

Added on November 18, 2007, 11:38 am1 more thing.... MITV's HQ is in berjaya times square... that really turns me off.. sounds like low budget company... so be prepared to expect bad service.

In terms of network and all the technical bits they are still a Celcom MVNO so that should be taken care of by Celcom. I believe if you call them to report a line problem, your call will just be diverted to Celcom's call center.

To be totally accurate, it's pay RM 1,999 for the phone, PLUS 4 months of free everything on-net, pay additional for calls off-net. What happens after the 4 months is up to anyone's guess.



RM 28 per month for how many channels I wonder? Those "premium" channels are charged extra? I think the public would like to see some commitment from them, rather than signing up blindly at RM 28 per month to receive RTM1, RTM2, TV3, 8TV, and NTV9.

And of course they will monopolise the DVB-H market after that. But the question is, will there be sufficient demand for them to keep it going as a viable business? Is DVB-H a killer app? I think not.



Why is it when it comes to Malaysian companies trying to promote their products the public always has a negative perception of their capabilities? I think it's because we've been conned in the past by too many similar companies. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if they set up a special transmitter within the MidValley area when they did this promo. As for their so-called 3G/3.5G network riding on top of Celcom's infrastructure, good luck to customers signing up. Celcom's 3G service has been royally screwed for the past 3 weeks, with no final resolution in sight (check other threads within this sub-forum for details).

And of course it's not a surprise that their corporate HQ is in BTS. Two immediate and obvious reasons come to mind:

(1) BTS is suffering from low occupancy rates in its commercial segment, even after being open for so long
(2) I am quite sure that their corporate/business rental/lease/sale segment is suffering the same fate as its commercial segment

Hence, they locate in BTS, because they're all under the same management, ultimately.

As for the calls being routed to Celcom, I would be totally disappointed, but not surprised if that happened. If it does happen, where's the branding? This just shows that the company is merely interested in selling, and not servicing its customers.

If you ask me, looking at what happened with MiTV, I would be very reluctant to sign up. Remember the disaster that was MiTV? Do all of us really want to suffer the same fate?

(OT start)...You're totally wrong...mate . Look at my sig....i've super fast connection..LoL!!!! ....(OT end)

Btw...thank you both of you (cyclonite & wr6969) for your valuable input....i think one can skip this at this moment.....

Hi wr6969, were you suggesting that MiTv is also under the Berjaya group? Ohh I didn't know that.

As for calls being routed to Celcom it's the industry practice worldwide in the MVNO business. I used to work at Vodafone, and we had a few MVNO partners. e.g. Tesco, Virgin Mobile. Take Tesco for example... they want to provide their customers with GSM services but they don't want to invest in the infrastructure and technology associated with the Telco business so they buy a block of bandwidth from Vodafone plus phone support for their customers. When customers call Tesco mobile for support it gets routed to Vodafone but the operator is prompted on the screen so he/she addresses the customer appropriately.

Ohh I checked the standard retail price of the N77 (Zitron Set) and it's around RM1980 so I guess for anyone who's already planning to pick this phone up it's definitely worth it to consider getting it with umobile. Otherwise, it's not worth is just getting the phone for the services.

My biggest fear is the lack of content and coverage for the DVB-H media. MiTv wouldn't have the budget to develop this part of its business very quickly.

But without examining the company's ownership details with a fine toothcomb, I can't say for sure. It is most definitely indirectly related, if not directly. Hence the choice of HQ location.



I think you can get it for a slightly cheaper price, but I'm unsure if it is an "official" set. Anyhow, word has it that their unlimited 3G data package will be priced at RM 88 come 1 April 2008. RM 28 for the DVB-H broadcasts. God knows what else is "hidden" in there. With no details whatsoever on their website, you have to rely on the words of their resellers/partners, and in this country, I'd take their promises with a whole truckload of salt.



If everyone remembers what happened to MiTV, then I bet the same fate would befall their DVB-H service. MiTV thought they could compete head on with Astro, forgetting that a lot of the channels on Astro have signed exclusive distributorship rights with Astro only, at least in Malaysia, precluding other players from offering the same channels. How is u-mobile going to bypass this? I don't know. But if they air those programmes which are currently not on Astro, or which Astro does not have the exclusive distributorships for in Malaysia, of what quality will these programmes be? I'd say below par, since all the "good" ones (according to popular opinion anyway) are already locked up in Astro's stables.

Plus, which sane person is going to watch entire episodes on a puny little teeny weeny screen? You want to go blind early?

wr6969:

Hahaha I like your last paragraph... it says a lot about MiTV.

I think they only way a new cable TV player can take over Astro is by offering something like HD content. Malaysia is seriously lacking HD content right now.... everyone's got LCD / Plasma screens but no broadcast source to use them with

RM88 per month for 3.5G will be on the high side next year. As it is, DiGi is offering RM66 per month for unlimited Internet access already. Of coz DiGi isn't 3G but when it comes to the actual Internet surfing experience outdoors, I don't think 3.5G will be much faster than EDGE on average lah.

---

Added on November 19, 2007, 11:43 amThey can dominate the DVB-H market if they really want to, by offering ESPN and Star Sports via DVB-H. It will definitely appeal to football fans especially when you're out and need to know the score at the spur of the moment heheheh

that might be true... hmmm..

I think Astro is going HD soon, I believe their latest satellites allows them this capability. But then again, I would bet that their major subscriber base do not have HD capability. LCD/plasmas' price points still haven't come down to the level where the kampong folks with Astro can afford (although I may be wrong, since there are so many Felda millionaires nowadays).



Yes, come next year, RM88 will be too expensive. And prices will come down further with DiGi's entry. I foresee next year will see different packages for 3G data. Light, moderate and heavy duty packages will be my guess, to fragment the market and make choice more difficult for the consumer. I think celcos would rather compete based on anything other than price, and if consumers are confused, so much the better for them because then the consumer would not be able to make rational, logical choices.



Footie fans will have you know that the game must be enjoyed in all its beauty on the big screen, not on a puny teeny weeny 2"X4" screen

Well said wr6969, thanks for looking into this whole thing objectively together

btw, I doubt a new Sat is required for HD capabilities. I think the new Sat MEASAT-3 is the same Boeing spacecraft used as MEASAT 1 & 2.

picture this.... MEASAT broadcasts so many channels down at the same time on the same frequency. If you wanna send HD content down, surely it's possible to merge the bandwidth of a few normal channels to get 1 HD channel. Remember, MEASAT sends down all channels at the same time regardless of whether you're receiving all of them or not. So I guess only an upgrade on the user's end would suffice to bring HD content to the home.

Anyone has try U mobile wireless broadband? Please provide some info.

u.mobile,celcom, maxis all is 24months contract. they all pakat?

i believe there gonna be more better package.dont rush for it yet.

I'm with celcom 3g now. Just my location connection not stable n slow, so looking for alternative. Yes, U mobile need 24 months contract, i think it's too much and for see the price will reduce very soon once Wimax come in.

I believe Maxis WBB must be subscribed on an 18mths contract... I stand corrected.

It is NOT sit on top of CELCOM. It will only use the celcom to roam for 2g when there is no coverage of their own u mobile network..........
they are going to official launch by end of this month...
this is another brand new telco with own infra

no melaka bo hoo

there's a review of umobile here

http://www.codebeat.net/a/review/u-mobile-review-20080326/