Just called Izzi Customer hotline and they say (at least) that they do not shape bandwidth for P2P services. If this is true, then well worth the additional cost compared to our favourite Screamyx. A little skeptical if this is true in the long run....

They also said the service is now on in commercial/city centre areas, and will be expanded to residential areas (such as Bangsar) by end-Sept.

No risk-free trial yet.

Currently using Maxis Mobile Broadband - service not great (they definitely throttle P2P and reception on high floors limited) but I must admit the convenience of a wireless connection is very appealing.

Wow! Stunning! Reading through all these mail, it's crystal clear that Malaysians are so satisfied with their current broadband offerings, such that any new service is immediately dismissed as rubbish, EVEN WHEN NOT A SINGLE PERSON WHO HAS ACTUALLY TRIED IT HAS COMPLAINED.

Of course, we need to discount rave reviews of dubious nature...

... but will some *real* Izzy users, please stand up?

Peoploids,

The Izzi website has been updated with their new roadshow venues. Their webdesigners should be tortured to death for not including a plain HTML version of their update instead of pure Flash bitmap, which makes reading the fine print a goddam nightmare....

FAR MORE INTERESTINGLY...

1) They are offering a MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE. The minuscule text reads (I think) "Not happy with Izzi's service? No questions asked refund with the return of '4G' card in good working condition. 7 days 100% refund. 3 months 75% refund. 6 months 50% refund." Purleez someone with a scanning electron microscope verify these figures....

2) There's a signup promotion with chances to win stuff (including a beemer).

...looks like I'm in. Signup by this weekend....

Since much skepticism re: the performance of the service in "real-life-human-being-not-sweet-talking-marketing-employee" hands, CAN ALL FORUM PEOPLOIDS PLEASE COME UP WITH YOUR LIST OF BENCHMARKS/TESTS/LOCATIONS and I will try (TRY-AH!!! NOT PROMISE!! Anyone flame me on this I will f***ing mess you up!!) to get it done and post results.

I'm not such a newbie on this forum, and you can verify my credentials on ancient Jaring newsgroup postings. (geez! noone trusts nobody nomore.....)

UPDATE ON IZZI:

Just came back from their booth at "our home base" Low Yat Plaza, where I found out:

1) Their "no-interest" deal is only using MBf Cards for now, with RHB and HSBC "coming soon". The also mention StanChart and Public Bank some time in the future. This is far from a comprehensive list of popular credit cards.

2) Their supposed-Money Back Guarantee works like this:

A) ALL REFUNDS SUBJECT TO RM180 "ADMINISTRATIVE CHARGES" - This is crapola as the Activation Fee is only RM82.

B) For the "FULL REFUND" as stated above, the CONDITIONS are as follows:
- No coverage at the place of resident(sic) or work place
- Usage of <3Mb of download - Come on-lah!!! How the heck to test a service with less than 3 MB!!
- Return of full set of user Terminals and accessories in working condition (the ONLY reasonable condition, IMHO)

C) For cancellation of subscription between 8 days and 90 days, they refund 9 months subscription (reasonable)

D) For cancellation of subscription between 91 days and 180 days, they refund 6 months subscription (also reasonable).

Tested their bandwidth at Low Yat - got approx 500Kbps (that's kilobits per sec, NOT BYTES) using their IzziPRO desktop terminal. Location was smack centre, Ground Floor, in the middle of an computer/notebook promo. I would imagine quite bad interference, so OK-lah.

The only good news: Both the PCMCIA and the USB models have external antenna connectors. They don't have their own, but say that many third party antennas can be found, some even at Low Yat.

..... BOTTOM LINE: KIV at least until they get their packaging right.

---

Added on August 1, 2007, 5:29 pmAND ANOTHER THING.....

With their current packaging, you would supposedly pay RM88, RM98 or RM118 a month to get the PCMCIA, USB or Desktop Terminals respectively. The price difference has to come from the different prices of the User Terminals (UTs).

I would understand if you would have to pay "extra" for a more expensive UT for one or even two years. However, they way they have done things, you would pay extra *FOREVER* for a different terminal, even through the throughput is EXACTLY THE SAME!

What-lah-wei.

This post has been edited by lowkl: Aug 1 2007, 05:29 PM

Just signed up with Izzi 2 days ago.

Went to the MyBroadband07 expo, which was really really depressing, as it showed exactly how paltry our broadband offerings are. Izzi had a booth there, and a few things have changed since I last checked a month ago:

- they accept far more credit cards for their zero interest plan, instead of just two.
- they provide a free external antenna
- they were willing to come over to my place, at my convenience, to test the quality of the connection before I signed up!!

I was told that they were directly from Izzi, not a reseller.

I am getting effectively 100% signal (Eyeburst reports it as -76db attenuation, with or without external antenna!) and so far, quality has been stable, reporting 800kbps to 1Mbps on local nodes of speedtest.net. Location: Sentul West, indoors, above 10th floor.

BT has gone up to 50KB/s.

... now the less good news.... latency is pretty blah. Speedtest reports 140ms as best, usually around 200ms. Periodically completely screws up to 600ms - 800ms!

My connection in Bangsar: far from satisfactory (though the Izzi people told me so) - back of house 50% to 70%, front of house 20% to 40%!! Izzi people told me that towers are coming up covering this area by end Sept/start Oct. Judging from their website updates, their rollout is ok-lah in terms of meeting deadlines.

Thinking of making a cantenna for this; will be trawling Pasar Rd electronics shops for the required parts.

Low Yaters, post your test requests and I'll see what I can do.

--
lowkl

Anyone knows what the best MTU setting is for izzi connections? I'm using 1400 now, which works, but not sure if it's the most optimal setting.

Just to gloat...

As I write this, I touched 100KBps on BT through Izzi !! Woo hoo!

Average for the past hour has been more like 70KBps to 80KBps though (plenty good enough for my needs). Comparing this to Screamyx and Maxis Wireless BB (which I used for 9 months), it's nothing short of miraculous...

This is indoors (at my office - 2nd Floor) very close to KLCC. Signal strength is 95% to 100% (I think, extrapolating from eyeBurst reporting -80Db upwards).

Hmmm.

I know compared to Maxis the 500+ kbps you are getting looks/feels wunderbar (speaking as an ex-MaxisWBB victim/survivor myself), but as you can see from other recent posts, most of us Izzi users are getting the full 1000kbps/1Mbps download most of the time.

Are you at 100% signal strength? Otherwise, you can look at whipping up a simple reflector such as this do-it-yourself project.

Wow! Didn't realize the external antenna is now an accessory that you have to pay for! Nevertheless, after coughing up RM100+ a month, I guess RM38 one-time is not too much...

I get about a 20% increase in signal strength (60% goes to 80%, 80% goes to 100%) when plugging the external antenna in. Maybe the IzziPro users would get less of a boost, since you kinda already have one.

There seems to be a general feeling that "Things are good now, but it's all downhill from here..."

In my practical experience now in using Izzi for about a month, the service started off great (full 1Mbps) then choked for about 3-5 days, but got fixed around the time I lodged a complaint citing many lost packets. For the past 2 weeks, mostly full speed, with a few times dropping to no less than 500 kbps. Their Customer Support even called me to check if things are OK. In my *life* never received a call like this from TMNet.

In the same period, at least 10 new towers have gone up. The last 4 towers have been delayed I think twice (now slated to be up end-October) but hey, this is Raya period; give the guys a break-lah.

Pricing is competitive, really only Streamyx better bang-for-buck "on paper". But if you are like me, without a landline and needing to access from multiple locations, wireless broadband is the only real option.

MaxisWBB sucked the big one for the 9 months I was afflicted with it. Quality dropped from "acceptable" to "poor" to "bad" to "stinking" to "downright putrid" consistently throughout this period. Not only slow, but connection kept dropping, and you had to actually toggle the modem on-and-off. What-lah-wei.

To those asking about latency; this is wireless-lah. Those who expect fibre performance will be sorely disappointed. For non-gamers, you won't even feel any difference.

BT.... the fact is many users (like me) have managed full bandwidth downloads. That being said, BT is a P2P-type connection, so I don't think any service can guarantee consistent high speed transfers. Furthermore, many users self-throttle upload speeds. At some point maybe/most likely Izzi will throttle -- until then, let those taking the risk of coming onboard early enjoy!

Check out other countries' iBurst implementations -- most charge based on data volume (and pretty expensive too). Izzi is the only one I could find which was unlimited.

I am very satisfied with the service so far. Compared to anything else available to us in Klang Valley, it rocks.

You are right in that there are no guarantees. If Izzi goes bottoms-up, it will be a long and probably fruitless process to get back the balance of the subscription fee.

To note however:
- Mobif is a MESDAQ listed company, and according to their 2006 Annual report, they are in the black.
- They have invested in 42 towers and other core infrastructure, which is not a small expense.
- They have also invested in a sales and support network
- They have so far done what they said they would do (with the exception of the delay in last 4 towers)

Given all of this, it doesn't look like the company is going to evaporate overnight.

... and let's get some perspective... it's just a few hundred ringgit. Not pocket change, but not like buying a house either!

Mine's better when using Penang's node...



but equally sh*tty when using KL's node...



...maybe it's the server.... I can even get better results pointing to Singapore...

From Bangsar area (100% signal strength) at around noon.....