Getting 'wiggy' with it...

I was asked by my blogger friend, Eddie Law, whether I would be interested to be one of the tester in a new product launched by a local Malaysian company. Well, I was not really asked, it was more like I asked to be included. It was exciting as the product was to be released much later on Thursday but we already being called to take back our tester on Tuesday. Well, I actually have no idea what we were getting as I am not the customer of their earlier products which is basically a box which can generate wifi for a certain area. I bet they may have not picked me if they have known that or they may still picked me as I can give a more clearheaded and unbiased comment.

 

My initial tester Wiggy... (didn't work)

So, as I went to their headquarters which is just 5 km from my office, I have no real idea what the product or the company is all about. What I know about them was they were given a license for something called the Wimax technology which is much faster than the wifi. That was it. I never tested any of their products although I have seen and passed (and tried to ignore) their booths in malls as I only saw this bulky thing like a speaker which is too heavy to carry around. Then I understood why when I was sitting there on Tuesday hearing their explanation.

A new Wiggy with a cooler package

The presentation was by a technogeek named Billy who briefed us on what we were about to see then. He was saying this with a tongue in cheek as he said everyone in the hall was supposed to have seen it on their website. I hate to say to him I didn't even know their web address. What a bad reporter I would have made. Anyway, he introduced us to the CEO, Michael Lai, who seems to be the Bill Gates of Malaysia (all CEOs of IT companies are always being compared to him) who tell us the brief history of their company. Their first product, the box I was tellinmg you, was just 8 months old. They did not launch a smaller version of the product as they were not satisfied with the initial design. So, they went back to the drawing board, and walla!!! Wiggy was born...

The company name is Packet One Network a subsidiary of a company called Green Packet. It seems they managed to acquire license to access tp30Mhz of spectrum in the 2.3GHz band (this are all Greek to me). Today, 09.4.09 was the real launch of the WIGGY and I went to see how a hardware was launched. There were some models, some local celebrities and then some toys for us to play with. There were some IT superstars whom I don't really recognised and of course, the Wiggy was the main attraction.

 

Michael Lai, the rockstar CEO

As for its performance, I was let down when I couldn't use it when I first got it on Tuesday as something was wrong with it. Just now, I exchanged it and it seems to be working. It is supposed to be a device which can download at 10Mbps and it seems it did manage to reach between 5 to 6 Mbps in the middle of town just now. I may try to bring it around town as we were told they only have 25% coverage of the whole of Malaysia and not even fully in the middle of the Klang Valley (considered like the Greater Kuala Lumpur).

 

The local celebrities who got the Wiggy AND the netbook, FOR FREE!!!

I am still playing with it and hope to give further report as I have until July to test it out for free. Oh, if anyone in Malaysia is interested, starting tomorrow, the Wiggy is for sale (the modem) with a subscription of RM149 at the PC Fair at KL Convention Centre. You have to pay RM299 (for the modem) + RM60 (for registration) as initial amount and you will get a free Acer Aspire One Netbook with Intel Atom processor. 

I am actually thinking of taking up on the offer though I have a free Wiggy already...

 

One of the models giving us a chance to play with the Wiggy

My Wiggy at work, finally...