My review of P1 W1MAX

I've been reading good reviews about P1 wimax. In fact the service is so good a friend of mine actually uses it at home already.

Coincidentally mum wants to change the BIOS battery of the old PC coz the always-self-resetting time is annoying. And she wants to add another DVD writer to the box as well. Since techshop dun have IDE drives anymore, dropped by at Digital World to see lo. Saw a P1 booth doin the 15 day money-back-guarantee promotion. Persuaded mom to sign up (i'm not the one paying ma... :-P ).

I was totally sold to the idea of a non-streamyx service. I tried it out and WTF streaming Top Gear in HQ (youtube) was... literally streaming. The buffer was way ahead of the playing and by the time it was 3 minutes into the vid the entire video had finished buffering. Done. An entire 10 minute Top Gear HQ vid done in 3 minutes. I forgot how many minutes it was but I remembered it was ahead of the playing time and finished buffering b4 the video was half way.

Impressive. No, it's GOD DAMN IMPRESSIVE. The promoter even showed me a vid of streaming 4 youtube vids simultaneously (on youtube, of coz). I didn't bothered to watch coz I noe they won't show me an evidence of their impressive connection if the video shows that it isn't. So my mom signed up based on the basis that we can return it 15 days later, FOC.

The night I went back, sure cannot get signal la coz baru saja register. Line also not yet activate la. NVM, I wait for the long night to end.

Since morning the next day I tried to connect from my room. Hrmm blinking red... I guess no connection? What about the study room? HRMMM... No connection as well. Guess I need to try outside? Nope doesn't work. Told mom that might as well go return it that night. Went there, confirmed is not modem prob. At the booth there can get green light summore off my modem. WEIRD STUFF. Coz the dealer is staying juz one row of houses in frnt of mine and he insists that he's having damn good reception and connection. Green light summore. So it's weird that one row behind cannot get any connection. He asked me to try for one more day (coz they don't take returns at that booth, have to send back to HQ by ourselves). If got prob can find the guy directly.

Tried one more time. Nope not working. Called up the guy and he came to my house while on his way home. He tried the study room and a bit outside (coz not logic to be able to get connection outside, I mean practically, it's pointless. Go online outside the porch meh?) He also said he couldn't understand the reason behind it. But we were getting a hint of stable red light.

The next day was determined to get at least some data off this modem. Then finally found this spot at the place where my mom irons clothes where I could get a stable red to orange signal.


Yes. That place. That's why I denied a webcam convo from my friend. Super messy background. I would love to see her face though... LOL (you noe, she might be reading this all the while).

It's juz hopeless. Just when I thought I'm getting decent internet, another problem poped up. Stability. The connection is never steady. I mean steadily steady.

Snapshot from my desktop 'Network Meter' gadget:

It almost resembles a human heartbeat. A while high speed, a while low speed. WTF. And it' PERIODIC.

Snapped seconds later.

As you can see, the speeds are impressive, but it can drop all the way to zero (lowest point on the graph) in a matter of seconds and takes some time to climb back up. And when it drops, there's a 10-20% chance that disconnection will follow. The frequency of disconnection is so annoying that I think it's just not worth it to sit in a tight space just to get high speeds. It was well worth it the first day, but not the second.

In fact I'm typing this post on a Steamyx connection. It sucks, but at least data is slipping thru, and my contacts on WLM dun get annoyed by the periodic "DJFOO has signed in" shit.

Streamyx, you suck, but you win. P1, you rock, but you suck as well, so you lose. Add another transmitter next to my house and I might consider giving it another 15 day trial. For the moment, I'm giving up on day 3.

Yes, 3 days of P1 misery. It rocks, but it really sucks that badly in terms of stability.

I would want to believe that my case is an isolated one. So do give the 15 day money-back guarantee thing by P1 a try. You might find it working great in your house. But mind you, there's a 20GB cap on the 1.2Mbps connection, beyond which your connection will be throttled to a meagre 400Kbps, which is still good, provided IF THE CONNECTION IS STABLE. Streamyx has got no cap, but the connection SUCKS. It sucks so badly TM should pay me for using their crappy service instead.

Now where did I put that tapeworm-like LAN cable from P1?

P/S: oh yea, the reason my mom was sold to the Rm99 package was that we're trying to get rid of the landline. Not using it so often already since everyone has got their own HP. Currently Rm66+ Rm60(for some TM package) = 126 per month. Aiks.

P/S 2: Streamyx, for the record, YOU SUCK!!!! If I have yet to mention why you suck, it's coz your speed is never the one I paid. I PAID FOR A STEADY 512Kbps connection, NOT AN OCCASIONAL/RARE 512Kbps connection.

Update 25th Nov 2009: Since this post is getting so much traffic, I might as well give it a small update.

I upgraded my streamyx package to the 1Mbps WiFi Combo, which is 110 inclusive of landline rental and taxes. Anyone who's not using the landline anymore but wants the streamyx service should consider this option.

To be fair, i was on the 512 package originally, I guess 0.5 Mbps is not that fast...

Yes, another video juz finished loading entirely by the time I finish this little update.

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