Malaysian Telco Needs Overhaul

Before our No.1 telco in Malaysia can really claim its iPhone campaign a success, Apple launched the latest iPhone 3G S in the States. When the iPhone 3G was introduced here in Malaysia exclusively to our friendly telco, I had the impulse of committing myself to that 2 years commitment plus an upfront of over a thousand ringgit with the Value150 plan just to own that revolutionary gadget.

After careful study though, I felt that the package is not attractive at all and to a point I felt it is a crazy package. Inside info from the telco - they had committed a six digit quantity commitment with Apple and the response had not been up to expectation. Within weeks, more and more customized packages were invented and it is now even open up for prepaid users.

My advice - don't go for it. Some of my friends who had already signed up regretted and although the OS 3.0 will be available as a complimentary update, still owning the all new iPhone 3G S is more worthwhile. Apple announced it will be available in the States exclusively with AT&T at only USD199 for a 16GB. I took the trouble to go to AT&T site to study its packages.






All above pictures are courtesy of http://www.apple.com


Similarly like our friendly telco, AT&T has various packages customized according to the user needs & talk time. However, one thing I noticed - the iPhone is still priced at USD199 regardless what package you sign-up with a minimum commitment of 2 years. And why our local telco is charging circus prices for the iPhone? And if you look at AT&T site, the present iPhone 3G 2.0 price had been reduced to USD149 for 16GB, do the conversion yourself and feel the pain.

So, these people working in the telco, I believe they are under tremendous pressure, so peeps wait a little longer. If not, wait for those AP unit distributor in Malaysia to do its job (we are expert on this), I think the price of APs will be in the region of maximum RM1.5k any time soon.

Same goes to Blackberries, we are always being overcharged for everything, is this fair? And despite the fact of us Malaysians being overcharged the service provided is really crappy. I am talking about customer service. I had recently signed up P148 with the telco that is claiming that it has the widest network in Malaysia because of its attractive unlimited broadband usage. However, 3 weeks due, my line is not even activated yet. Somebody there is sleeping on his job. And I am signing up with a totally new number and not through MNP porting, if porting I understand the hassle because you need to cancel the current commitment with the present telco to switch to another.

Now this is one reason I support AP units! The AP distributors are like Robin Hood in modern age. Keep up the good work!