GO! and Zoom! Price War: The Reaction

DST launched its mobile broadband service, which offered upto 7.2Mbps download speed. It is using USB stick-like modem which is slimmer than Zoom!'s-cabled modem. The price plans are competitive and it does not keep you tied to a particular period of time. Well, there are such plans if you want to and it comes with free laptops. Speaking of laptops, GO! is offering much better-specced laptops. The top two laptops on offer are Dell XPS and a MacBook.


I went to the DST Roadshow and had a taste of what GO! can offer. It looked impressive; streaming was flawless. I did some speedtests and it consistently gave at least 2Mbps returns, which was still far less than the touted max download speed of 7.2Mbps. One of the technician said that during the launch they were observing 6Mbps, which was not surprising as you would want to show that on the day of the launch, wouldn't you? However, I was told that 3.5G coverage is only available around Brunei Muara district. There are plans to upgrade the 3G covergae in KB, but that will come by the end of the year and depend on the available fund. So at the end, GO! and Zoom! are offering the same specification for KB then.


Since the launch of GO! Broadband a few days ago, B Mobile has advertised quite a lot to counter-offer DST's GO! offer. It has now reduced the rate, bettered the package and now offered much better laptops. Now it is offering Asus EEE (at one time, my item of desire), HP Compaq and soon a MacBook.


I have a few grievances about Zoom!. I am still quite disappointed with the coverage of its HSDPA network. I have used Zoom! in many places; at home in KB, at work in Lumut and at a friend's place in Kianggeh. I am quite disappointed to note that I could only get the HSDPA coverage in Mumong. I'd think being in Bandar, I'd get HSDPA coverage too, but nope! Nada! I have been monitoring the stats on the modem and all I got in average was 300kbps. Isn't espeed much faster than that? I remember that it once hit 1.2Mbps, but it lasted for a max of one minute only. And BMobile announced that they increased the download speed to a max of 7.2Mbps, but it seems to be useless too. For one thing, the modem is specced to do a max download speed of 3.6Mbps. And yeah, the speed has not changed much either. And the laptop they offered now and then? We got this Dell Vostro laptop which is as sexy as a wheelbarrow, compared to the now-offered Asus EEE or soon-to-be-offered MacBook. Since we were among the early customers of BMobile and supported them from the beginning of Zoom!'s introduction, will we be given the chance to upgrade our laptops to the better ones? And how about the rate reduction now offered? Will we be refunded on our prepaid monthly rates?


You might argue that we should have waited for DST's GO!. At the time of Zoom!'s launch, there was no indication of whatsoever that B-Mobile was going to better their package. No mention of better laptops. And DST announced GO! launch a bit too late, when most people have gone for Zoom!. And I would not have thought that B-mobile would have improved their offer if it weren't for GO!'s better offer. And as for me, espeed went awol for almost a week! I could not live without internet!


Come on B-Mobile! Do the right thing... Allow us to get the better laptops and give us the faster-specced modem!

Post blog write-up comment:
I went to the Consumers' Fair and made some enquiries to Zoom! sales representatives. Apparently the 3.6Mbps modem given out to the early subscribers will be replaced with one that can do 7.2Mbps, but they were not sure if it was going to be free. There is no chance of getting the better laptops.

Also, now Zoom! has introduced a new price plan. Now there is an unlimited price plan at $60. There is no word of this to be given to the early subscribers who paid $45 per month for a 48-month contract in advance. With the old plan, the free data volume is 2Gb and after the usage of the free data volume, every 1MB would be charged $0.50. The bill is capped at $85, so this would translate that unlimited access would be $85. Now that my fellow Zoomers and I are using unlimited Zoom!, will we be given the chance of getting the unlimited $60 per month price plan?

Also, now the contract period has been reduced to 30 months; we all signed up for 48 months. So can we break the contract after 30 months too? 4-year contract is considered long for an IT-related contract.