Hi-speed Wireless Broadband in Balik Pulau

I've just returned from Asia Pacific Wireless Broadband Forum (AP-WBF) 2008, held at Kuala Lumpur last Friday where fellow Japanese researchers and Malaysian technologists shared their findings and vision on the road ahead for hi-speed connectivity, and throughout the trip, I only manage to crawl at 200Kbps or less with DiGi Edge, while our Japanese counterparts are getting several Mbps to 10s of Mbps with their wireless broadband, which are poised to go up several Gbps soon! Even our minister, the selamba-man, never-follow-written-speech man, Dato Seri Dr Lim Kheng Yaik on the other hand, instead of being optimistic or making boastful visions only took the opportunity of addressing the crowd by slamming wireless local broadband technologists and vendors for continuously breaking promises on the big BET for WiMAX, year after year.

Suppose I was ranting on how real broadband connectivity for mobility might take a long time to arrive in our remote town of Balik Pulau, but a fellow BP-ite from Sg Rusa has just confirmed that HSDPA (3.5G) might have actually been brought by Celcom already, according to Subset Stars. No wonder Celcom has been plastering the entire Jalan Bukit Gambir from Jalan Masjid Negeri (Georgetown) all the way to Jalan Tun Dr Awang (Bukit Jambul/Bayan Baru) and a portion of Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah near Batu Uban & Gelugor with its night-bright light-post ads...


Hmm, maybe it's finally time to ditch DiGi for good for only being capable to get me about 50Kbps of 'broadband' at Anjung Indah -- my favorite lepak place for the past five years (since before its renovation last year). Though, I still hope that DiGi would roll out its new 3G license off its recent acquisition from Time Dotcom real soon, so I may keep my current phone number, or until mobile number portability arrive in Malaysia, whichever comes first...

Should I or should I not sign up for TM Celcom Data now? Could it actually be better than TM Streamyx?

(I have actually visited its center in Bayan Baru last week by the staff there as well as Celcom reseller would not offer me a guarantee for HSDPA in Balik Pulau -- or they simply have no knowledge about the service at all!)