You will want to get connected when you are are George Town. There are a lot of companies offering telephone services for your mobile when you are in the island, so you need not worry about not being able to call home to let your family and friends know that you are safe. So, what are the options that you can have?

There are two ways. You may get a post paid card if you are going to stay on for a long period of time, but if you are just staying for a short period, such as two weeks or a month, you may get a prepaid card instead. You still need to register for the prepaid card, using your passport as identification. There are many different telephone companies available with different packages to choose from.

Maxis

Maxis is one of the telco companies that keeps fluctuating between love and hate. Some people may have used it for more than ten years, and stays loyal to it, while others may have used it for just a few months and start complaining about it. However, this may be very subjective, depending on how the customer perceives it. There are fine prints, and at any point at all, the customer should listen carefully to all the terms and conditions to ensure that there will be no surprises when you use it. It can happen not only to Maxis service, but also to any other services.

Some people complain about the reception. However, Maxis is has indeed the best reception at highways. There are many places where other telcos may have lost total reception, but Maxis still has it, yet many people still do complain about it. Maybe they have seen something better, or maybe their expectations were a bit too high... or maybe they were interpreting something greater than reality based on the advertisements with promises that may not be fulfilled each time. It is a telco company anyway, and subject to technical glitches and many other problems that we may not know at the backend of the communications technology.

Digi

This is the one that the Yellow Man promoted. While Maxis holds its identity with a strong red colour, Digi gives it a stark contrast by having it a bright yellow. The advertisements are a lot of fun too, with a Yellow Man icon that is easily recognised as a Digi man. How good is it anyway?

It promises the network coverage to be with the user at anytime at all. This is another one of those advertising promises that may not be fulfilled, because some buildings just do not allow for good reception. When such things happen, the customers start complaining again. Some will start examining whether it is the phone, and some will say that it depends on the areas. At last, apparently the Yellow Man is not always there for everyone.

Celcom

This is probably the least popular among the three older services, but it does have its own customer base which may be slowly dwindling in many ways. Advertisements are all over the streets, as streamers at lamp posts or as billboards. However, there is not much hype or talk about this telco service, and customers just stay there or leave when other telcos have better offer. So much for loyalty to this telco with a blue colour for its logo.

U-Mobile

U-Mobile is a relatively new telco service that seemed to get quite a favorable review from its users. It is mostly about low call charges, unlike others that may have mobile phone bundle packages. Some people claim that this service is available even in those buildings where normally there will be bad reception. How true this is has yet to be shown with more solid evidences. It may be just coincidental, or perhaps it may be just because there were lesser people taking up the service, hence lesser traffic to its lines.

What are the criteria that you have when you wish to get a mobile communication when you are in George Town? Will you pay more attention to the charges of overseas calls, or will it be data plans for your other gadgets for mobile Internet? One company may offer you a very competitive overseas calls price, while another may offer you a very good unlimited data transfer package for your mobile Internet connections. Each company actually has its own advantages, and a lot also depend very much on the location of where you are using it. For example, one person may be using the Maxis broadband with the Internet key without any problems, while another may experience very slow data download due to location. The construction of the building will also affect the quality of the line. Just choose the one with a plan that you are most comfortable with and you will not go wrong. Make sure to check our Instagram, we were recently able to buy Instagram video views, so check them out.

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There are many broadband services companies available in the country, and they are all now available at George Town, Penang. The only concern is on your budget and how extensive you want the service to be. Staying in a heritage city like George Town, Penang, does not mean that you need to stay in the old times... you can still live like a modern, urban dweller, and if you happen to need all the information about expenses in moving.

Streamyx

This is probably the oldest service available. It uses the fixed line provided by Telekom Malaysia, and there are still people who are using some of its earliest unlimited packages at a very low monthly payment. It may not be the most fashionable service in the country, but considerably the most stable. If there are a lot of complains about satellite broadband services that are unstable, there will still be Streamyx that may be slow and lagging, but will be able to still continue surfing. No matter how much the people complain, there will still be some reasons that people still keep Streamyx as their main wifi at home... for the stability that it can offer. As long as the telephone lines are well and cables are working, there will not be any problems with the services.

Unifi

Another strong broadband service that just emerged out of the Streamyx family is Unifi. The package for the Unifi includes a wholistic solution that combines Internet surfing with Internet television, plus communications by telephone and short messaging services. It is one of the strongest broadband connection to allow such Internet television, and it comes with several packages to allow connection within the whole house, while also checking other important parts of the house such as the cost of electric gates for residential buildings, so they can keep them apart and secure.

The television channels offered in the Internet television are lesser than those offered by Astro, even though some channels are the same. You will not get a full package like what you can get from Astro, but it will not be too disappointing either, unless you prefer more Oriental movies that you can get from the Dynasty Package on Astro, but I like to watch other type of movies, for which I use the netflix vpn to have more options.

So far, users are satisfied with the connections and said that the speed is fast compared to other services. Could this be just a temporary thing because subscription is still low? Or will it be able to maintain the speed as it is right now when more people enrol in its services?

Telco Broadbands

The next best thing to happen is the broadbands offered by telephone companies, such as Maxis, Digi or Celcom. There are a lot of people complaining about these companies, mainly because the lines may not be stable, or because there are additional data charges once their usage exceeds the signed dataplan. Some, however, will not have additional charges, but the lines will go really slow and not meet the speed expectations, yet still usable.

These telco broadbands usually come with an Internet key, which is a USB device to give laptop computers the ease of mobile connections. The USB device is just the size of a pendrive, which makes it easy to bring along and handy enough for a quick connection. Installation is easy as well, so there is no need to worry about convenience. However, the only negative aspect about this may be if there are too many subscribers using the service at the same time at a single location, or when there are some problems that will mar the satellite signals, then the connections may be a slower speed.

Otherwise, there are also wifi packages with all accessories included. These packages are usually the most expensive of all, probably because of the speed and strength of the connection, plus the accessories. It will be good to compare the packages and decide which one is the best, and check with existing users to get a more balanced review of the product.

P1 Wimax

Perhaps the most condemned of all services is the P1 Wimax. It is a service that once gave a lot of promises due to its publicity as a fast broadband service, that created a lot of angry customers and disappointments when its service could not cope with the promises it made to customers in the advertisements. It is a painful process to try cancelling the service too, due to the extensive terms and conditions that got a lot of grumblings by the customers. Perhaps P1 Wimax could try to improve its capacity so that services given to the customers will be better. In fact, P1 Wimax line always breaks easily, and it can be pretty frustrating especially if you are on Skype call.

Yes

Yes is one of the least popular in George Town, probably because it just started and is being challenged by Unifi. Yes boasted itself as the true 4G connection, but how fast and effective it is has yet to gain much raving reviews among Penangites.

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