Broadband and netbook are must have gears for students nowadays. Choosing the right netbook with broadband package is critical if you have limited budget as usually the packages subscribed tie you to that network for 1 to 2 years. On top of that, the durability of the netbook and consistence performance of the broadband service, are what you’re expecting after spending hundreds buck of hard earned income to get the services.
Sadly, there is not much choice of broadband with netbook package available publicly in the market. Certain higher intuition do provide easy payment scheme to purchase netbook but that’s limited to their student only. Available in the market at this point of time, there are only 3 netbook with internet broadband packages, 1 free broadband service as well as some education program with discounted price for students from certain computer vendors.
1. Streamyx Cool Uni Pack
A broadband with netbook package dedicated ONLY to students, this is an initiative by government with collaboration with Streamyx to ease the ownership or netbook and broadband to students. The package comes with free broadband connection for 2 years with very affordable monthly commitment.
What’s in package : Netbook, WiFi modem, 384kbps Streamyx Broadband for 2 years
Price : RM38 for 2 years
Link : Cool Unipack page
2. Celcom Broadband + Netbook.
This is publicly available netbook/notebook with internet broadband service that open to anyone. As this is profit oriented scheme, the price tag is not as affordable as Unipack package. The are 2 ways how you can get this packages, pay RM88 permonth for 2 years to get the broadband and netbook without needing to pay huge sum upfront. Or secondly, pay RM888 to get the netbook and additional RM58/98 for broadband package for 1 year
What’s in the package : Netbook, Celcom broaband
Price : RM88 permonth for 2 years or RM888 for netbook and RM58/98 for celcom broadband
Link : Celcom Broadband
3. W1MAX-1NSiDE 4G Laptop
Almost similar as netbook with Celcom broadband package with slightly different technology. The broadband itself is using Wimax technology. And the netbook is Wimax ready, with Wimax chip already embedded into the netbook/notebook so no modem or whatsoever is required. The drawback is Wimax coverage itself which still pretty much limited at this point of time. But if you lived in the area where coverage is available, this is pretty good deal as they do provide free Wimax service between 3 months to 6 months.
What’s inside the package – Netbook or notebook itself
Price – Price is vary, with price starting from RM1349 to 2599
Link : Wimax Inside
4. YTL Education Partner Program (EPP)
This not so widely known program is providing free broadband access to students in UTM Skudai, a collaboration between UTM and YTL Comm. The broadband which run on so called 4G technology (sorry I’m not aware whether it is LTE or Wimax) aim to expand the service through out Malaysian campus by end of 2010. The free is limited to 300MB worth of data permonth, considerably few but still okey for just web browsing and reading email usage. After all, it’s free, right? If you’re interested and students, you can subscribe or reading more of this from the link below
Link : YTL EPP
5. Apple Education Pricing
For those with higher budget, Apple does provide discounted price for their Apple Macbook for students. The discount ranged from RM400 to RM700 and you can’t get the deal from Apple online store only. Check out this page for more info.
6. Other broadband service
Broadband is more affordable than ever nowadays. From wired to wireless, there are variety of packages that suit your needs as well as your budget. Head to ISP such as Streamyx, Jaring and TM for wired broadband or Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U-Mobile for wireless broadband.
7. Acer Education pricing
Honestly, I’m not sure if this program still available right now, but it definitely available in the past. Acer never advertised this program , but if you walk-in to any notebook store selling Acer netbook, there is a chance it might still there.
