What Users Want from WiMax

So P1 Wimax has been launched for a couple of months now. The good news is that the introduction package plan with the free modem is still valid until year end. So there’s some more time for those still contemplating and for those that are still waiting for the service to be available in our area.

Some researches had been done in the past before the availability of Wimax on what users want from wimax…basically what do users want to do when they have the service.

In 2007, Motorola conducted a survey which showed that ultimately, users want to use wimax in watching live online news, e-mail related activities (read, compose and send), downloading music and using mobile TV. That seems pretty relevant to me, what I would user wimax for too. I’d really like to be able to use wimax to watch online streaming movies, something I fail to do with Streamyx. On some days, I can watch without buffering, on some days, especially these few days, I totally can’t and watching movies became more frustrating than enjoyable.

During a recent Wimax for Broadband Conference held in New Delhi, India, some of the comments collected regarding what users want from wimax are, “users want access on the go, the WiMax signal to be uniform in a hotspot, without signal fluctuations, a reliable connection. They want their data to be secure on the move, a single bill for Phone and WiMax, and a single username and password irrespective of which city they’re using the service in.” Now these users in India really know what they want, being one of the largest groups of internet users, to be exact, No 4 in the world with 60 million people. Sad to say, Malaysia is not even Top 20! Some also found that Wimax users in India use wimax for online gaming.

So what do Malaysian internet users want from Wimax? Well, according to forumers on LowYat forums, some of the things we are looking for are good customer service, minimum downtime, cheap price, full speed, nationwide coverage, and no capping. Some are more lenient to say that as long as it is better than Streamyx…they would take it. 😛 I guess a portion of what the users want is based on their disappointments with existing ISPs in Malaysia.

So, as an internet user…what do you want from Wimax?