Telekom Malaysia (TM) has finally unveiled its first ever 4G LTE service named TMgo, in an event held in Alor Setar on Friday, August 8th. This launch came just a month following the leak of its official webpage, marking the ninth Malaysian operator to enter the 4G LTE space, after Celcom Axiata Bhd., DiGi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd., Maxis Communications Bhd., Packet One Networks Sdn. Bhd., Puncak Semangat Sdn. Bhd., REDtone Marketing Sdn. Bhd., U Mobile Sdn. Bhd., and YTL Communications Sdn. Bhd.
Also not to be forgotten is that it has been four and a half months since TM’s announcement of its ‘partnership’ with Packet One Networks Sdn. Bhd. (P1) that resulted in a 57% shareholder stake of the latter, though this deal is not to be closed for another month and a half (September 30th), pending approvals by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
TM is capitalizing on its existing spectrum assets to repurpose the 850MHz band (LTE-band 5) for its mobile broadband, instead of the 1800 and 2600 MHz bands (LTE-bands 3 and 7) used by our main mobile network operators. The 850MHz band is also used for LTE by other incumbents such as Sprint (US), NTT DoCoMo (Japan), and SK Telecom (South Korea). Some of you may be familiar with SK Telecom as it also has a stake in P1.
The initial rollout will only cover a few spots in two states: Kedah and Melaka. I may have missed out a few town names, but here’s an idea of how small the coverage is right now:
Kedah — Alor Setar, Baling, Bandar Baharu, Batas Ban, Jeniang, Kuala Nerang, Kuala Pegang, Kupang, Lubok Buntar, Pendang, Pulai, Serdang, Sik, Tokai.
Melaka — Alor Gajah, Ayer Molek, Ayer Paabas, Kampung Bukit Lintang, Kampung Duyong, Lendu, Melekek.
TM is promising speeds of up to 20Mbps, and is offering only two devices to connect to its LTE network for now. The first is a USB dongle that’s geared towards a single-person use, while the second device is a mobile hotspot meant for a few devices to connect to it.
D-Link DWR-922 — Introduction price of RM115 for the starter pack
D-Link DWR-930 — Introduction price of RM315 for the starter pack
Both accept SIM cards and the starter pack comes with a free 2GB data quota. Upon activation, the account will be active/valid for another 30 days. TM will give away a “Free Super Bonus Quota” of 500MB for every reload for six months, provided that the account is still valid during the credit top-up process.
Speaking of reload, the vouchers can be purchased at any TMpoint or e-pay kiosks. There are basically only three top-up values — RM10, RM30, and RM50 — which will give you 1GB, 3.5GB, and 6GB, with the validity period of 7, 30, and 60 days respectively. The RM30 reload will also give you free 500MB data as mentioned, while the RM50 top-up will grant you an additional 1GB of data for free.
There are a few other frequently asked questions answered by TM which you can read more here [PDF]. They include the usual “best effort basis” banter, and the fact that you’ll only get 10 to 30 Mbps speeds in real life. One interesting thing to highlight is that the two FDD-LTE modems has microSD card slots with capacity up to 32GB, which allow file transferring over the local area network. The dongle has a MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) antenna and has drivers for Linux and Mac (besides Windows), while the mobile hotspot is powered by a 1880mAh battery.
For more information on TMgo, visit https://www.tm.com.my/tmgo/.
The post TMgo official: TM’s first 4G LTE service now available in Kedah, Melaka appeared first on TechAttack.my.