As parents to school-going children, my wife and I are entitled to one 1BestariNet Yes ID each. Each of these Yes IDs is internet ready but data is capped at 200 MB. 400 MB from these two IDs is just about right for our needs, and I have been using these two IDs for over the last year or so, for free. My WiMAX modem is actually a "Yes Buzz 4G Cloud" phone by Samsung, a gift that was given to my family as our first digital camera actually.
Unfortunately, somebody decided to revise the 1BestariNet programme recently. Beginning July 2016, no data is allocated to our 1BestariNet Yes IDs anymore. From now on I will have to purchase my own internet data. Only one thing to do now: time to go shopping.
Back To Basics
I find shopping for the ideal internet plan to be cumbersome. Telcos tend to offer products that look similar but differentiated by some minor add-on that makes an apple-to-apple comparison impossible. The end result for me: confusion.
To simplify things, what I did was to go back to basics: I just look at my requirements, my needs.
| What do I need? - Internet data Do I need voice calls - No Do I need SMS - No Do I need free media streaming services? - No Cloud storage? - No Data roll over to the following month? - Maybe |
And this is what I could find that matches what I want: a data add-on product from Yes (again?) to my 1BestariNet Yes ID:
4 Giga Bytes of Internet data valid for 30 days for RM 31.80 (including GST tax)
The cheapest option that I could find; no voice, no SMS (which isn't a concern to me); just plain internet broadband data all 4GB of it for RM 31.80. There is no additional hardware to buy since what I have is adequate. I would have gone for a much cheaper/lower-data-allocation option that is closer to my usage pattern but 4 GB is the minimal on offer. Beggars can't be choosers, they say.
Tempting
Failing that, the next best pick for me is to subscribe to the Yes (yes, Yes again) 4G LTE Pre-paid plan that was launched recently. The data add-on plan is quite similar to what I have mentioned above. Here's a screen-grab from their web-page as of July 2016 of what's on offer. Quite enticing in my opinion.
But there is one caveat: their SIM Cards are compatible with a limited number of smartphones only - 8 at the moment - and the ever popular Apple iPhones is not even on the list.
Report Card
I downloaded GIMP version 2.8.16 recently. The average download speed was about 600 KB/s, which is acceptable to me. It is good to disclose my location - I'm in Ipoh - as the download speed varies from place to place from what I've heard. The signal strength is usually at least four bars at most times - it's at five now, I just checked, and it is drizzling outside but page loading is a bit slow compared to a couple of hours earlier.
One problem that I've faced though during my last 18 months with Yes: the availability of the Yes network can be a bit dicey at times. I can recall about 2 or 3 occasions when I was kicked out while I was in the middle of surfing the web. I was unable to login after that despite trying for a couple of hours. I gave up subsequently but managed to get in again on the following morning. This hiccup can repeat itself and dragged on for a couple of days when luck is not on my side. Fortunately, I was not on any mission critical assignment. So I just waited it out patiently.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. And neither am I associated with the Yes or YTL Communications Sdn Bhd. "Yes is a 4G Mobile Internet with Voice service powered by YTL Communications Sdn Bhd" according to their website.
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