Changing Broadbands

All these while I've been using Celcom internet service provider to get connected to the internet. At first the service was okay, the speed was reasonable for the price that I paid. I was using my phone as a modem so the speed wasn't that great, but at least I could read my mails, chat, blog, facebook, and surf a little.

This phone was used only to connect to the internet.

Lately I was having trouble getting into the net. Sometimes when I was trying to connect, the message came out saying that I was connecting through another service provider - Maxis . Strange isn't it?

And once I got connected, it'd take maybe 10-2o minutes to get to the page I want to visit. Sometimes it would take even longer. It was just so frustrating. Just to make a comment on FB may take me like 40 minutes or so.

Most of the time I will use the phone as a modem and connect it to my laptop. Lately I feel that Celcom service was very poor. Everytime I get connected, I could only chat in MSN for a few minutes before the line went local and I would have to reconnect again. What I usually do is to switch off my phone, remove the battery and sim card for a second and put them back in the phone again, switch on the phone and try to connect. I would do this for at least 10-20 times a day. (FRUSTRATED to the MAX)

Last week I discovered Maxis Broadband :)

This little gadget cost slightly less than RM300 and each month I only have to pay RM68 for the service. The speed is up to 3.6Mbps (although most of the time it's 1.5- 2.5Mbps), but for this package the fair usage is only 2GB a month. (Meaning that I can upload/download up to 2GB before Maxis throttle my bandwidth).

Once I signed up with Maxis, I went to Celcom to cancel my data line. To my horror, they said that I was tied to them for 1.5 years and I still have another 2 more months to go. Alternatively I could pay RM350 to stop the service. I can't remember them telling me about that clause when I signed up for the package. I told them I don't mind paying for the 2 months, just that they will have to give me a good service (as in better internet connection). I thought that was fair...