Well, this is new even though I should have
seen it coming though. Once I think about it, this has been looming in the
background for a long time. It certainly was an interesting experience,
expanding horizons and all that.
The beginning
P1 is one of the easier brands to
recognize, mostly because its stuff comes emblazoned with a giant P1 logo. This
particular service, the P1 ToGo Plan, is based around the idea that you opt to
rent the MiFi device. I’m sure you will be able to find a review of the gizmo
somewhere in this magazine. The service itself requires users to sign up for a
two year contract, which will cost $22 a month. There is also an activation fee
of $32. Requirements I managed to elude thanks to this being a review. As far
as costs go, this one isn’t so bad. $22 is a reasonable price for a 10Mbps
wireless connection. Although it will be addition to whatever price you’re
already paying for your phone data plan, which places this sort of thing into a
more niche market. Naturally you could get a dumb-phone and use P1 for any data
requirements that might arise. Not entirely the best solution but it is a
combination that works.
This
particular service, the P1 ToGo Plan, is based around the idea that you opt to
rent the MiFi device
Where does it work?
Wireless services don’t work everywhere.
The number of variables that affect the connection keeps engineers employed and
physicists happy. So the first thing to do is to try it out in various places
that I frequent to find out how it performs. Being the antisocial type, I only
went to my usual haunts to test the services of P1. But first, the office.
Which I have discovered is a bad place to use it for as there is no connection
at all. Something about the design of the building means that the service
simply does not work. I know this because it connects the moment I step
outside. It wasn’t a good start. The next step was to run a speed test. That
showed that the speed was about 1.7Mbps. Not exactly near the peak of 10Mbps. But
I chalked it up to this area being a black hole of electromagnetic signals.
P1’s
Personal 4G Wi-Fi can connect up to 8 devices
Speedy highway
Next would be on my drive home from work.
Yes, testing internet speeds on the highway is a bad idea. But what else can
you do in a traffic jam? Along the LDP I managed the peak speed of 7.5Mbps.
Excitement rose but unfortunately the traffic eased up before I could settle in
to get into more trouble. Shah Alam also showed less than stellar performance
as the speed dropped down to a serviceable 2.3Mbps. I can’t really say where
the bottleneck is. I can say that P1 has probably lined the highways with their
signal towers, so this is great if you live near heavy traffic.
