Despite the 60% population coverage that Digi recently announced, Maxis insists that it is the true telecommunication company that provides the best 4G LTE network coverage in Malaysia. The company is saying it is capable of giving customers not just great coverage but quality speeds as well. To prove it, the company is holding a 24 hour 4G LTE network challenge to collect data on its network speeds and coverage across Malaysia.
Maxis has now ramped up its nationwide 4G LTE coverage to 62%, which is 2% more over Digi’s latest claim of 4G coverage. On top of that, even Celcom didn’t want to reveal any specific details during its FIRST Blue and Gold launch, other than stating that its population coverage is now well over 50% and will continue to improve.
Maxis’ 4G network is provided to customers using the -98dBm signal strength, which is different from Digi’s -110dBm signal strength standard. The company claims that using the -98dBm signal will give users four bars of signal on their devices, while the -110dBm is only equivalent to two bars. On top of that, the company also argued that if it were to use the -110dBm signal standard, its population coverage would be at 71%.
Maxis now has 2.2 million customers under its mobile network and it claims that with the -98dBm signal strength, its customers can expect zero buffering on YouTube 96% of the time, and webpages can be loaded up in less than 8 seconds.
With the 62% population coverage, the company now covers 144 major townships across Malaysia. It is promising its customers more than 20Mbps of speed 80% of the time, which is double of what Digi is offering. The company ran the tests based on Ookla’s speed test app, but when asked whether the app would be a reliable standard to measure 4G speeds, a company representative said that it was not. Ookla’s speed test services may not be the best, but it is the most accessible speed benchmarking app out there.
With the constant argument of which telco has the widest 4G LTE coverage, consumers do get the most benefit as these companies upgrade their infrastructure to provide better quality network. That being said, there is no way for an average consumer to be assured of the credibility of what these companies are claiming.
Consumers are mostly worried about three factors when choosing a mobile plan – price, coverage, and quality. There is no such thing as the perfect telco with the perfect mobile network plan, but there are companies striving to achieve that myth.
