Experience with Maxis 3G Broadband Service

Maxis, a Malaysia network service provider recently rolled out its 3G broadband wireless service for home internet users. This is good news especially for those that have been subscribed to TMNET Streamyx for years but doesn’t seem to satisfy with their technical support.

My consideration to Maxis broadband is because of its portability and no restriction of where you are going to access the internet. As long as there is Maxis cellular network available, you can surf the net through the mobile modem provided. And you can get maximum downloading speed of HDSPA at 784 kbps or 3G speeds at 384kbps, EDGE or GPRS in worst case depending on the coverage area.

After few considerations, I decided to give Maxis broadband a try while still maintaining my Streamyx account active. In this case, I can compare the performance of both, one using Maxis broadband wireless service while the other one using TMNET Streamyx ADSL as the WAN and via 802.11b WIFI as the LAN and make decision later.

During my trial period with Maxis, I realized that the Maxis mobile modem didn’t really provide a very stable net surfing experience to users. With two laptops sitting side by side connecting to two separate WAN respectively, Streamyx provides quite consistent result of around 500 kbps (my subscription is 512 kbps) downloading speed but Maxis downloading speed varied from 300 kbps to 1 Mbps, even within few seconds timeframe. On averaging, Maxis network seems to outperform Streamyx but when come to real situation, it often get disconnected by itself, regardless of its RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) shown on the modem was perfect. These tests were performed using bandwidth tester online, repeated on few different locations with similar observation.

Now I am still undecided if to switch to new Maxis or stick back to Streamyx broadband. I will do monitoring for another week, thinking that Maxis may still trying to optimize their backhaul network support to allocate sufficient bandwidth for individual subscribers especially during peak hours.

Note: Maxis 3G broadband and TMnet Streamyx are broadband service available in Malaysia. This article is submitted by guest author.