Celcom vs DiGi vs Maxis (Hotlink) Prepaid Broadband Comparison

Most people are wondering which is the best prepaid broadband.  As fans of each brand try to gain ground over the other, here's what I have collected on all 3 prepaid broadband services.  Yes, I did bother to try out all 3 because I wanted the best for my own use.


CELCOM Prepaid Broadband
There is no such thing which says being first would make you the best, and Celcom is testament to this.  Being the first telco to offer the prepaid broadband package, users are able to get on the internet with the speed of 384kbps.  Celcom Prepaid broadband is only limited to surfing the net, and voice calls/sms/mms services are unavailable. Grace period with credit still intact is 100 days.
The Pros: Unlimited usage with two choices of plans Daily Unlimited at RM6 (24 hours) or Weekly Unlimited at RM20 (7 days). Widest coverage. 
The Cons: At 384kbps, the service seems a little bit pricey and speed has been reported to be unstable.  The fact that you need to slot in the sim card into a mobile phone and select which plan you would want to use is also annoying, especially if you do not like to open up your mobile phone.


MAXIS Prepaid Broadband via Hotlink
Maxis offers prepaid broadband via its prepaid branch, Hotlink.  The beauty of this move is that you can use your Hotlink sim card for both surfing the net, and also making calls.  While Hotlink does have it's pay per use Hotlink data plan, users can always opt to use their 7.2Mbps broadband by pre-purchasing the offered packages.  Since the package is bundled, you can use the sim card to make out going calls, sms, mms and using your phone as a modem.  Grace period with credit still intact depends on your Hotlink plan.
The Pros: High speed internet running at 7.2Mbps.  Shared balance which means you can top up your Hotlink number and use the balance also for broadband.  Stable speed.  Two choices of plans Daily Unlimited at RM8 (24 hours) or Weekly Unlimited at RM25 (7 days). Although it does require activation to select a plan, but due to its nature of sharing the broadband service and call service, users using their mobile phones as modem will benefit greatly. 
The Cons: More expensive than the rest in the market. Coverage is average and limited to major areas in Sabah and Sarawak.  New users however need to be careful as sometimes confusion will cause users to use the mobile internet instead of the broadband plan, hence draining their credit faster. Download caps are in place, and exceeding the limit of the cap requires additional funds.


DiGi Prepaid Internet
The latest and the youngest wireless broadband in town.  Offering almost double what other telco's are offering, DiGi stands with their reputation of being the cheapest and most value for money service.  In additional to that, DiGi is offering users the Turbo 3G which is said to be a lot faster than the ordinary 3G offered by other Telcos. Grace period before termination is 90 days.
The Pros: Cheapest prepaid broadband, offering RM2 per day only at the speed of 384kbps.  Stable speed in areas covered. Easy set-up and usage.
The Cons: No choice of plans and the minimum top-up is RM10, with RM2 being deducted daily regardless of usage.  There is a download cap.  Very limited coverage.  Reload can't be made via Flexi e-load and automatic reload.


MY VERDICT:
I'm using Maxis (Hotlink), so that explains a lot without saying much.  But anyway, for what's it worth I found that Maxis despite being more expensive provides better service and coverage hence making it more reliable.  The ability to accumulate your credit balance and use it not only for broadband also encourages me to go for Maxis.  DiGi's prepaid plan does look tempting, but if you are only getting the wireless prepaid broadband as a second/back up, you won't be happy to know that your money/credit will still be deducted despite not using the services.

13 comments:

  1. correction,

    the prepaid broadband plan (for celcom) that u mentioned is about celcom prepaid broadband starterpack (which purely for broadband only).

    actually u can always subscribe the same prepaid broadband plan from any celcom prepaid number (xpax, sox, uox, blue, sukses, etc) so that u can sms/mms/call using the same simcard too (same as hotlink data plan).

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  2. Holabola:
    Thanks for the response. I indeed didn't know about this as Celcom doesn't highlight such a package for their broadband. They instead focused on promoting their Prepaid Broadband only.

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  3. UMobile offer prepaid broadband internet on their prepaid pack and also data only postpaid internet package. Speed is stable. Around 1Mbps average. There are few plan. The unlimited data plan is 5GB cap and offer in 3.6Mbps max speed. Its RM68 only.

    I have use all. So far the performance is Celcom being the worst, drop data connection always cause always from HSDPA drop to WCDMA. Maxis followed. Stable a bit but too expensive. Suck blood.

    Digi and umobile are the best so far. The fastest on DiGi on postpaid bb plan... get average 1.2Mbps and umobile get 1.1MBps on their pre and postpaid data plan...

    Maxis bb, sorry... i dun want my pocket to be empty so fast!

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  4. mind to share with us

    If using hotlink prepaid broadband daily/weekly.

    how much average speed can get from high speed 3G and 3G coverage area?

    http://www.maxis.com.my/3G/coverage_local.asp

    from what I seen on maxis website prepaid broadband is offer 7.2mbps is attractive.

    But not sure at area only 3G can get ??mbps

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  5. If you are using Maxis prepaid, you will get the same speed. Only difference is that you have a cap on daily usage of how much MB you can download.

    As for coverage, you will only get 3G speed and not the full 7.2Mbps in 3G area. For full HSPDA speed, you need to ensure you are in the High Speed coverage. The 3G speed is pretty decent running at above 4Mbps.

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  6. i'm using celcom prepaid broadband for sometimes now but the plan for daily and weekly is only for usage of data means you cannot sms,mms or call while using broadband but if you have extra credit than you can call out,sms and mms but not for the subscription for daily or weekly plan because the credit will be deduct and if you don't have extra credit you can't make calls!Try it and you will know.

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  7. I'm a loyal broadband user of Celcom for quit some times now,before end of february 2011 the service is good and reliable but starting march,it seems the service is very slow,i mean you need to wait for couple of minutes before the page loads and for downloading videos,just forget it.....wait till the 'moon drops'.This is because celcom had reduced the bandwidth for daily and weekly broadband.After so long using celcom,now i'm want to switch to other better service provider...may be P1.Hope P1 is reliable and fast!

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  8. actually, Digi has no limit cap...

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  9. actually, witch of all this plan has no limit data volume usage? i'm just want the unlimited usage and i don't care about the speed.. someone can help me?

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  10. where's your update on this? it's already 2nd half of 2011 isp plan changes all the time

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  11. Anonymous - Please go to http://cyrildason.biz/complete-comparison-between-digi-prepaid-internet-maxis-hotlink-celcom-instanet/

    This is the latest.

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  12. i had try it all...best for me is u mobile prepaid unlimited at Rm28/month, good speed but only work in KV only..

    digi at 15/week but can use outside kv..but not all,digi weekness is that a lot of area got no signal even for calling

    both the above won't cap ur speed even afer long over quota..

    best speed maxis..but after quota,it become useless with 5-10Kb/s only


    P1 supersuck!!!..celcom sometime network down..

    nvr try yes.will go for it whenever they drop of PAYU

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