Oh yeah, finally my Izzi subscription ended. What a relief. Today will be the last day I use izzi as my broadband service provider. I already can’t ‘tahan’ (bear) anymore the service quality. Most of the time I only get 80 kbps..yes…you read it right. It is kbps, not capital letter B. Which mean, my download speed is somewhere around 8-10 kBps. What a phatetic service, and still need to pay RM98 (RM88 for renewal subscription, monthly basis).
I stay at Kelana Jaya and according to Izzi guy, KJ is the most saturated izzi user. Even so, this should be not their reason to provide 8% of their advertise speed. Would you not be mad, if you pay RM98 for 1000 kbps broadband but they only provie you 80 kbps? That is 24kbps faster than dial up speed. No wonder my browsing (I already say bye bye to torrent and download, unless I have too) experience become so terrible. It need more than 20 seconds to open http://www.tomshardware.page. So do with other website which utilize heavy graphics and flash…
So, last week I do myself a favour. I went to TM Point Kelana Jaya and register myself TM.net Streamyx Combo 60. Pay RM75 for phone line activation fee and RM30 to the tm contractor (he came to my resident area and config. phone line jumper). Total up, RM105. I am pleasantly surprise because I used to think that I need to fork out around RM300-RM400 upfront, for the phone line, deposits etc etc. But, what I do actually need just RM105, LoL. And, if I already have a phoneline activated, I should pay nothing to register streamyx (I mean upfront). And I expect my first bill will consist of 2xRM60 (this month and deposit of my combo60). Activation (streamyx) already waived…yay.
But, why i subscribe Combo60 (384 kbps) instead of Combo90 (512kbps) or Combo110 (1Mbps) ? 2 reasons actually.
First, I don’t know that my appartment copper line is in good or bad condition. Streamyx use ADSL technology which is base on best effort basis. If I subscribe 1 Mbps service and the copper line is relatively bad for high freq. signal, my stremyx line will be throtled down upon handshaking between my modem and ISP. If my modem insist and agree for 1 mbps connection, but the copper line can’t hold it, frequent disconnection will occur. Frequent DC is what I hate most. So, I start with slow line speed, observe the average downstream and upstream speed, and if I confident that this line could support higher speed, I will upgrade (upgrade can be done fromt their website and FOC). However, if I start at 1mbps and this copper line could only support up to 600 kbps, I will doomed as tm.net doesn’t entertain any downgrade request. Simply said, during the contract period (1 year), you can upgrade your streamyx speed but you can’t downgrade due what so ever reason.
Second, Streamyx is known for their fair usage policy or in other word, P2P packet throtling. Theoritically, my combo60 will allow me to download at 48 kBps (I test at nzones.com, download speed (FTP) at 49 kBps, sweet), but if they throtled my torrent and cap it at 10 kBps, I don’t see any reason for me to get 1 Mbps service. 384kbps is more than enough for email, browsing and casual downlaod activity.
And 59 kBps is way faster than 10 kBps (this is what Izzi provide me, most of the time, except during 2AM to 6 AM, but I am sleeping at that time duh..).
I am fully aware that streamyx has its own problems and headache too. Well, if anyone could tell me that there is 1 ISP in Malaysia that able to provide headacheless service, I will jump from KLCC 😀 . I rather bear streamyx problem (but consistent 45-50 kBps downstream speed) rather than virtually no problem for izzi but downstream speed averagely 8-10 kBps. (Imagine, when I use Izzi, once i format my PC, i need to let my pc perform windows update from 12 midnight till 7 AM in the morning).
So, how fast my stremyx combo60 actually?
Here we go. 479 kbps for 384kbps service. For RM60, I got this speed + a working phone line where I can use it to call any number in Malaysia (different charge) but assuming I running out of mobile phone credit, I could use this one for emergency. However, upload speed is lower than what they advertise.
let see how fast this line when we use Singpore test server.
Sweet, still more than 384kbps.
So, let recap how much Izzi could provide me.
Well, picture speed thousands of word…as I am already speechless looking at 80 kbps from 1Mbps izzi subscription.
Final word : If you want to subscribe to izzi broadband, ask the reseller to perform a speedtest first at your home. Try to test the connection speed at your desired working area, as wireless signal may detrotriate and affect your wireless broadband speed. If you have phone line and willing to wait 7-10 days, simply go for streamyx. For RM60, I got lifetime warranty modem and faster line speed (practically) compare to izzi, 1 year warranty and slower practical broadband speed for RM98.
