We in Malaysia can only enjoy up to 100Mbps download speeds up until now. If you live in TIME dotCom’s (TIME) coverage area, the internet service provider (ISP) since September 2012 has been offering a 100Mbps plan to a lucky few. Business users had the option to go for Telekom Malaysia’s (TM) UniFi BIZ 100Mbps that was introduced back in October 2013. Maxis followed suit a few years later with its 100Mbps Home Fibre Internet that was announced in June of last year. Today, TIME is leading the charge yet again with the announcement of — get this — a 500Mbps Fibre Home Broadband plan. But that ridiculous speed is not its only selling point; TIME Fibre Home Broadband 500Mbps has symmetrical speeds, and it’s only RM299/month!
Before you get too excited, know that it’s for personal use only, and not for businesses (at least for now). TIME Fibre Business Internet Basic, for small businesses, enjoy up to 40Mbps only, while TIME Fibre Business Internet Plus subscribers get slightly faster speeds, at up to 45Mbps. Enterprise users, of course, get to customize the plans and services to their needs, but they’ll have to call in for that.
Rundown
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get to the juicy stuff. For starters, TIME still has its Fibre Home Broadband 100Mbps plan but that’s only RM149/month now (it was RM179/month initially, with a 100GB quota). Following that is a 300Mbps Fibre Home Broadband plan for RM189/month; which is just RM40 more per month for thrice the speed. But why get 300Mbps when you can have a whopping 500Mbps for RM299/month? That’s just RM110 more for around 1.7 times faster. All plans come with a 24-month contract. As a comparison, Maxis’ 100Mbps Home Fibre Internet is still at RM398/month. TM‘s UniFi ADVANCE 30Mbps is RM179/month with a 10Mbps upload, while UniFi ADVANCE 50Mbps is RM229/month with a 20Mbps upload.
With speeds that insane, TIME claimed that you can download an HD movie in just 32 seconds. TIME also promised that all three TIME Fibre Home Broadband plans announced today get to enjoy symmetrical download and upload speeds. There is also a big “unlimited” image on TIME’s brochure suggesting that these plans don’t have any data quota on them.
Both TIME 100Mbps and 300Mbps plans require the D-Link DIR-850L AC1200 dual-band wireless router, while the 500Mbps plan uses a more powerful, Linksys EA6350 AC1200 dual-band wireless router. It looks like TIME will be charging for the upgrade of the router, where necessary.
If a landline phone call is utilized, a pay-per-use rate of 9 sen per minute will be charged, to all landline and mobile numbers nationwide. IDD calls are charged at 8 sen per minute to 60 countries. Subscribers can also purchase 2,000 voice minutes for RM10/month, and unused minutes will expire in 12 months.
Not all roses
It’s such a shame that the service is only available at limited high-rise residential and business locations. That said, TIME said its new Fibre Home Broadband plans are available to 250,000 homes and growing. TIME is also always looking to expand its fiber optic network to more areas. In the race to be the first to offer 1Gbps speeds in Malaysia in the near future, it looks like the winner may not be TM.
Not all is well for TIME Fibre subscribers though, even if they’re lucky enough to be in the coverage area. Some users have reported seeing speeds of their VPN connections throttled significantly.
Upgrade path
Update (6:30pm March 23rd): TIME reached out to us to clarify on the discounts and upgrades existing subscribers are getting.
Existing TIME Fiber Home Broadband subscribers are in for a treat too. It appears that legacy plans — 8Mbps, 15Mbps, 30Mbps, 50Mbps and even 100Mbps — will get their speeds bumped up, while paying the same monthly fees. The 8Mbps plan (RM129/month) goes to 100Mbps. The 15Mbps (RM179/month) and 100Mbps (with 100GB quota for RM179/month) plans now get upgraded to 300Mbps. Finally, the 30Mbps (RM279/month) and 50Mbps (RM399/month) plans get bumped to 500Mbps. Looks like everyone here is getting a discount, except TIME Fibre 50Mbps plan subscribers.
Existing TIME Fiber Home Broadband subscribers (except those who took the Astro-TIME bundle) are in for a treat too, as their speeds will be automatically upgraded to match the new plans. If I’m not mistaken, up until May 18th 2015, TIME had 8Mbps (RM129/month), 15Mbps (RM179/month), 30Mbps (RM279/month), 50Mbps (RM399/month), and 100Mbps plans (100GB high-speed quota for RM179/month). After that, the ISP had a promotional period where it upgraded the speeds of the lower-two tiers, while reduced the prices significantly for the next two. The 100Mbps plan remains the same. From that date onwards until today’s news, there were four replacement plans: 10Mbps (RM129/month), 20Mbps (RM179/month), 30Mbps (RM219/month), and 50Mbps (RM249/month). Hence the chart you see above. The bottom line is, everyone gets a discount, with the 50Mbps plan enjoying the highest price cut. This is because subscribers to 50Mbps without the promo pricing were paying RM399/month for 50Mbps, but moving forward, their new bills will be at RM299/month, while enjoying their new 500Mbps symmetrical speeds.
Previous TIME Fibre Home Broadband plans
- 8Mbps (RM129/month) —> 100Mbps (
RM149RM129/month) (RM20 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 10Mbps (RM129/month) —> 100Mbps (
RM149RM129/month) (RM20 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 15Mbps (RM179/month) —> 300Mbps (
RM189RM179/month) (RM10 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 20Mbps (RM179/month) —> 300Mbps (
RM189RM179/month) (RM10 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 100Mbps plans (RM179/month) —> 300Mbps (
RM189RM179/month) (RM10 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 30Mbps (RM219/month) —> 500Mbps (
RM299RM219/month) (RM80 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 50Mbps (RM249/month) —> 500Mbps (
RM299RM249/month) (RM50 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 30Mbps (RM279/month) —> 500Mbps (
RM299RM279/month) (RM20 less than new subscribers, same monthly commitment) - 50Mbps (RM399/month) —> 500Mbps (RM299/month) (same fee as new subscribers, RM100 less than previous monthly commitment)
Also with the new speeds, TIME has seen fit to remove its speed boosting quota, since the data is unlimited now.
Contract for existing users will remain the same (how many months they have left). However, for those who plan to upgrade to TIME’s new fiber plans, the contract will be reset back to 24 months.
One final caveat. Astro subscribers who got it bundled with TIME, are not eligible for an upgrade. Instead, they will have to sign up for a separate TIME Fibre connection to their high-rise homes. This is according to the information given by an Astro representative when one of our colleagues called them earlier. However, who’s to say Astro may not bundle their channels with TIME’s new plans soon?
Sign up is done online and you can find out more about the new TIME Fibre Home Broadband plans here: http://www.time.com.my/personal/broadband/fibre-broadband.
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