I think I'll say YES
Not because of the pricing strategy or the marketing stunts, but the vision and philosophy behind the business.
As some of you might have heard that I was flew down to KL by YTL Comms to participate in the Yes4G Penang Food Hunt. Frankly I am still clueless on why I was invited, and the last minute flight arrangement actually upset my plans had to reschedule appointment with a few clients. Bryan was my travelmate for this trip, we reached KL on Thursday evening, spent 2 nights there and joined the rest of the invited bloggers for the road trip back to Penang on 12 March.
Basically the trip was about introducing Yes4G services to all of us and getting us to experience their claim of having the whole PLUS highway covered. Whole bunch of us did quite some testings here and there, speed test was common, we even tried Ustream, Skype, Facetime, and I was practically playing my Youtube playlists along the way, pretty impressive indeed. I am not a tech blogger anyway so not gonna touch much about the tests, check out Bryan, Yoga, Vernon, Arystle, Chapree, Joshua, Philip and the rest (will update the list again) for more details.
What I want to discuss here is the vision and philosophy behind, like I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
One of the most enjoyable moment of this trip (besides the fun time and people, free hotel stays, travelling and food) was listening to Tan Sri Francis Yeoh and Wing Lee sharing their thoughts about the internet services, relating their views to the future of the industry and the mobility of internet.
Tan Sri started his session by plugging Steve Jobs as a genius and visionary, by introducing iPhone and later it's not-quite-famous permanent feature - FaceTime. Then he went on to explain why other telcos never highlighted FaceTime, not even European countries. Even the feature failed Steve when he presented the feature during his keynote, just because it runs on Wifi only, not 3G. Tan Sri claimed that Yes4G can do that, and he proved that in a demo after that, he looked proud. (I tried Ustream during the trip when the Yes Sprinter was moving at 140km/h, smooth transmission)
A few key points I picked up in his speech, one of them is he thinks that internet survives on anbundance, and it must be an open ecosystem. He was referring to the mobility of internet, I couldn't agree more. I picked up 2 important elements for the mobility of internet to materialize, from his speech - the speed and the coverage.
Let me put that into perspective here. Take a look at your internet bills as we go along. The first question is: do you know how many GBs you're using every month? How many telcos you're subscribing to, that requires you to commit to some quota or fixed charges?
Then the next question should be: why not all in one? Best if we can bring our internet along to everywhere we go, you use your internet with an unified ID.
When Wing Lee, the CEO took the stage, he further punched it by emphasizing on the "continous internet" and the possibilities it brings by enabling the masses to truly blend internet into their daily activities. Interesting thoughts, really.
From my tests during the food trip, honestly the coverage along the PLUS highway is still not 100%, but it is nothing short of impressive comparing to what we have. Streamyx or Unifi might be able to carry such speed, but those are stationary. DiGi is still cool, but it can't allow me to play my Youtube playlist while driving.
Like how Tan Sri Francis and Wing put it: a mobile internet tsumani is brewing. I started imagining how doctors able to remote diagnosis while the the patient is still in the ambulance, and probably I can work as usual when travelling from Penang to KL.
I believe it is still a long way for changes to happen, but glad to see that YTL is at least taking a step towards that. There's a few things you might want to know about them:
- They have acquired over 100,000 users in 100+ days after launch
- They're going to launch their own Android phone soon, with FaceTime like feature, but for group video-calls
- Tan Sri Francis is certainly an Apple fan, and a very savvy one.
This is my complimentary Huddle anyway, cool stuff.
So yea, I think I'll say yes, if not because of the contracts with other telcos.. Have you tested Yes4G? What's your take?
