Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Yes?

YTL Communications, a subsidary of YTL Power (YTLPOWR), will be launching their WiMAX service on the 19th of this month.

I attended its pre-launch event just now and here're some stuff to highlight to fellow Linux users or Android lovers.

  • No, there's no official Linux software or drivers and I don't see why they shall release one. But things shall really work OOTB.
  • No, HTC lovers, you can't run Evo 4G on it, as Evo works only with 2.5GHz-2.7GHz WiMAX. In Malaysia, WiMAX is currently deployed with 2.3GHz spectrum; although MCMC recently has granted the 2.6GHz spectrum - we still gotta wait.
  • Yes, you have to buy the phones from YTL and given that WiMAX requires no SIM, I am not sure whether that'll encourage vendor locked down and monopoly. My question on this wasn't really answered.
    • They are Samsung lovers and the available handset now is Samsung Epic 4G. I don't use and never like a QWERTY phone.
    • I suppose they have customized their phones with their own software, but custom ROM shall work just fine with all the necessary apk.
  • Yes, Android is the only platform for now. iPhone 4 is not a 4G network phone, yet.

    IMO, within the next two to three years, we won't see 2.6GHz band and LTE being deployed. That also means, we don't get real 4G 'til that happens. What shall happen in between, it's too hard to tell now.