Emporium Blog

Things went smoothly after I applied for Unifi, the high speed broadband service by Telekom Malaysia. They called a day after I have submitted my application online. They confirms all the details and sets a date for installation. I was excited and are really looking forward to the day.

I began to do some researching on Unifi. It does not paint a rosy picture and I found reasons not to subscribe to it. The process was like a mission to find the enemy and put a bullet through its head.

Things I do not like about Unifi:

• 60Gb quota of data download per month. The VIP5 package I am subscribing to, despite boasting about the download speed of 5Mbps, will be throttled down to 10% of the original speed if the quota is exceeded. Although the quota is not implemented yet, there is also no guarantee it won’t be implemented in the future. It is only a matter of time, I am sure.
• 24 months contract. In the event I want to terminate the service before 24 months is up, I will have to pay a penalty charge of RM500.00
• Telephone line that comes with Unifi cannot be used for fax. The telephone line is different from normal, it uses VOIP technology. Many users complained that it cannot be used for fax. Despite an assurance from the customer service that it can be used for fax, I have some reservations.
• Throttled for P2P downloads. This is not new and throttling is normal for ISPs worldwide. I do not see the point of having high speed broadband internet just for surfing and checking emails.
• Equipments provided is not up to standard. Many users complained about the Dlink DIR-615 wireless router that they provide. The wireless range is limited and features are lacking. Compatible wireless routers for Unifi are few.
• IPTV has few watchable channels. The package comes with IPTV with boring channels. Users have to pay extra for more and interesting channels.
• Useless telephone during power outages. I stay in an apartment. Unifi uses VDSL technology for high rise buildings. They have the servers on the ground floor of the apartment. In the event of power outages or thunderstorm, the power to the server may just trip and users will lose their internet and also telephone service.
• You have to pay for customer support. Users have to pay to call them. Users often have to wait very long before they actually hear a human voice. Charges are 8 cents for the 1st 2 minutes of the call and 4 cents per minute subsequent.

They customer service called me a day before the installation date. He had to say something like “Sir, if you decide to cancel the installation, please let us know before 24 hours from the booking time”.That broke the straw and I promptly called them to cancel the whole thing.

Well, there are things that can wait in this world and this is one of them.