A week ago, local telco TM announced their intention to provide better internet for Malaysia. Many people were rejoicing at the fact that affordable, high-speed internet is finally within reach. The whole deal sounds a little too good to be true – 30 Mbps for RM 79/month? Sadly, there’s a catch behind it all. As mentioned in our previous article, a user visited the telco’s branch and found out that the unifi Basic plan comes with bandwidth. Today, they confirmed that indeed, the plan is capped at 60 GB.
unifi Basic and unifi Turbo
So what will you be getting with RM 79/month? There’s, of course, the 60 GB limit. Next, the unifi Basic, unlike other unifi packages, will not be including the IP-based phone and unifi TV. TM’s target audience seems to be household with RM 4500 income and below. Another odd thing is that you can only get this plan via their official website. So if you’re interested, remember to place your pre-order on July 15, 2018. Though, just to put in perspective, take a look at this calculation of data consumed from YouTube videos.
Also, remember, 1000 MB = 1GB.
2160p video : 20000 kbps
1440p video : 8913 kbps
1080p video : 3774 kbps
720p video : 3000 kbps
480p video : 1000 kbps
360p video : 721 kbps
240p video : 377 kbps
144p video : 80 kbps
So for a 10-minute video, data used will be
2160p video : 20000 *60*10/8/1024 = 1465 MB
1440p video : 8913 *60*10/8/1024 = 653 MB
1080p video : 3774*60*10/8/1024 = 277 MB
720p video : 3000*60*10/8/1024 = 220 MB
480p video : 1000*60*10/8/1024 = 73 MB
360p video : 721*60*10/8/1024 = 53 MB
240p video : 377*60*10/8/1024 = 27.6 MB
144p video : 80*60*10/8/1024 = 5.8 MB
So … about 300 720p video on YouTube? Credit to Mr. Bindu for doing this calculation on Quora.
As for unifi Turbo upgrade, they did promise to provide more than double speed for existing users. Remember, if you’re a new user, you can still enjoy this upgrade. As long as you sign a plan by the end of this year, 2018, you’ll receive the upgrade for free as well. Here’s a look at unifi Turbo’s upgrade plan:
Hopefully, there’s no catch in this deal. Will you be getting the unifi Basic or just skipping it for the Turbo? Truth be told, for entry-level, this is a decent deal for people who still don’t have internet in their life. 60 GB quota still better than no internet, right?