Maxis, the No.1 Telco in Malaysia revamped its Maxis Fibre Internet plans yesterday and launched a new MaxisONE Home targeted to selected MaxisONE plan subscribers.
The new Maxis Fibre Internet plans starts from 20Mbps at RM198/month (RM170/month for MaxisONE Plan 128 and above), and up to 100Mbps at RM398 (RM330/month for MaxisONE plan 158 & above users). A 30Mbps plan cost RM248/month (RM220/month for MaxisONE Plan 128 and above).
Maxis said it intends to focus on quality of service. Here’s what it claims to offer:
- Maxperts: Expert consultation for optimised home Internet
- Up to 100Mbps Everywhere: Equally fast upload and download speeds everywhere at home
- On time every time promise: 99.99% on time record
- 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back
- 24/7 customer support
Here’s 5 reasons Why I won’t sign up for Maxis Fibre Internet:
1. Expensive Maxis Fibre Internet plans
Maxis marketing team did a “great job” by launching the new Fibre Internet plan just a week after the new TIME Fibre Internet plans were revealed.
A simple comparison between Maxis Fibre Internet and TIME Fibre Home Broadband below:
| Maxis Fibre Internet (MaxisONE Home) | TIME Fibre Home Broadband | Price Difference |
| 20Mbps at RM170/month | 100Mbps at RM149/month | Maxis more expensive by RM21 |
| 30Mbps at RM220/month | 300Mbps at RM189/month | Maxis more expensive by RM31 |
| 100Mbps at RM330/month | 500Mbps at RM299/month | Maxis more expensive by RM31 |
Based on the comparison above, not only Maxis fibre plans are up to 10x slower, it is also more expensive than TIME.
2. Maxperts, the installer with recommendations that will cost you more
Maxperts are basically technicians who represent Maxis that will consult you on how to get the best Wifi at home.
While the “consultation” itself is free (valued RM188), it will lead to purchasing more wireless devices such as HomePlug, Wifi Extenders/Repeaters if you want Wifi signal in all your rooms (and toilet). For example, a good Wireless Powerline Homeplug WiFi Extender from TP-Link will cost RM229 on 11Street, and this only covers one room with good Wifi signal. At the moment, Maxis has not revealed how much it is charging for these devices and “additional installation cost” despite these items are mostly plug & play.
If you don’t have enough power point plug or socket, non-standard installation, it is going to cost you even more for a truly satisfying Internet service.
3. Up to 100Mbps Everywhere at Home- Unlikely
It is possible to deliver 100Mbps to everywhere at home but it will be extremely difficult, especially on Wifi. Put it simply–you need to be close to your Wifi router to achieve maximum data speed.
If you are living in a high rise condo or apartment, things get even more completed. As many people use Wifi today, the spectrum in 2.4Ghz (frequency) are congested and this causes interference. The only way to solve this is to use a least congested Wifi channel/band and boost the signal (additional cost) with Wifi Extender, etc.
Adding too many Wifi Extenders/Repeaters will likely reduce the bandwidth of the home Wifi network.
The best Wifi band to use is 5Ghz as it is least congested but the coverage can only cover a small area. Also, if you have a 4-5 year old PC, it won’t support Wifi on 5Ghz.
Based on complaints I have seen, I doubt if the lousy Wifi router from Maxis would be able to deliver a good Wifi coverage in the 1st place.
4. 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back- but Answer some questions 1st
“If you exercised a return guarantee within 30 day after installation, we will verify your claim using the SLA as stated in the terms and conditions. Once we have verified that no discrepancies and if you are still unhappy, we will proceed to terminate the service at no charge.” – Maxis
To be clear here, Maxis is only guaranteeing a “Happy Service” for 30 days. There’s no 100% satisfaction guarantee for 2 years despite customers will be signing a contract. Why does a Telco keep unhappy customers after 30 days?
There’s also going to be a lot of question asked if you want to terminate the service within 30 days as Maxis need to “verify your claim” that you are not unhappy. So basically, they are not going to let you go easily after you sign up.
In my opinion, a true service guarantee mean that there should be a “rebate guarantee” in place if customers experience slower than usual Internet speed or when Maxis Fibre Internet experience a network outage. Why should customers pay a minimum RM170 a month if they are not happy with the service?
Where’s the guarantee from Maxis that it will deliver 100Mbps speed, 100% of the time? Quality of service should meet customer’s standard, not Maxis standard.
5. 24/7 Customer Support for what?
We all know that all the Telco’s customer service are excellent. You call them to make a complaint, to solve an issue, but sometimes they make your life difficult.
At the moment, I am not clear if Maxis 24/7 customer support for fiber is going to be any different or better; if they have the knowledge on Internet issues, if they will remotely fix a router problem, if they will offer a rebate without asking, if they will dispatch a technician the next working day?
Maxis have a 24/7 customer support like the other Telcos, so nothing special here. Can Maxis offer a guarantee that it will solve a problem within a acceptable time frame and if not, will it compensate customers for the fault. This is not happening right now.
Maxis promises 99.99% on time record for its installer, what happens if they are not on time?
In Summary:
In the past few years, a lot of Malaysians signed up for the Maxis Fibre Internet 10Mbps plan at RM148/month because it was two times faster and cheaper than Unifi VIP 5Mbps at RM149/month. Personally, I have heard many complaints from those who signed up, from slow 1Mbps speed to multiple outages in a month (location specific).
With the new plans, Maxis should offer more value to non-MaxisONE plan users since they are paying more. For example, free subscription to iflix/Netflix, Spotify, among others.
As for MaxisONE Home users (with MaxisONE Plan), why can’t fibre Internet customers enjoy unlimited calls to all networks? There’s Unlimited Calls from Maxis-Maxis, but thousands of people are porting out.
While I don’t agree with the high pricing, Maxis could have done things differently with Maxperts, for example, install Chromecast on my TV, teach me about how to use iflix and Spotify on my TV, tell me about new content and service, etc.
Meanwhile, I am still on Unifi but my contract has expired. I’m waiting for Celcom to launch its fiber service sometime in June 2016. I would happily take up TIME Fibre Internet if not for its limited coverage.
As for now, I am going to completely avoid Maxis Fibre Internet service. I am already seeing many dissatisfying comments online from current and past Maxis Fibre Internet users.
P.s: Maxis Corporate Communication team did not give me any details about Maxis Fibre Internet. So this is my own version of the story. Feel free to correct me if there are any errors.
Disclaimer: This is an opinion based article and it is the personal view of the writer. It does not necessarily represent the view of MalaysianWireless.
