Last Saturday, the CekikDarah team, (Ken included) being sports fans, traveled down to Singapore to watch the UEFA Champions League Final match between Barcelona and Manchester United at Arab Street, Singapore. This gave us a special opportunity to test out the coverage of Yes 4G along the PLUS north-south highway.

To make this test credible, we set some parameters for this test :

• Our average speed 110km/h (true story)
• we switched on the Yes 4G huddle and take note the time and place of irregular signal status (medium, low and zero signal strength)
• a prompt loss of signal, then back to a good signal strength does not count as it is most likely a reaction to the change in WiMax base station.
• there are 3 levels of signal strength, Good (Green), Medium (Yellow) and weak (Red)
• Loss of signal is shown by the blinking of the red light on the Huddle

We started at Sungai Besi toll with a full bar reception.  Here the road test started. Using the parameters, these were the important points throughout the road test:

• Bangi Toll area – Medium signal strength
• Bandar Seri Putra – Alternating signal strength between weak and medium strength.
• Seremban Highway – alternating between medium and good signal strength but no signal loss so far.
• Restoran Jejambat Ayer Keroh – weak signal*
• After Merlimau exit signal turned weak and total loss of signal for 2 km but signal became strong again 5km before Tangkak.*
• KM160, around Tangkak – Signal loss, resumed at KM158, 2km from RNR Pagoh.**

*Later on we found out that the Restoran Jejambat is a Streamyx Zone so there is no Yes 4G signal.

** This might sound funny but this “weak and signal loss” might just be caused by the declaration of the area as a Streamyx zone.

Conclusion

We can say that Yes 4G covers the whole stretch of the PLUS North-South highway except at the Restoran Jejantas in Ayer Keroh and R&R Pagoh, but that only accounts of 1% of the whole stretch of the highway. The connection is pretty stable accept for the occasional change of WiMax base station every half an our or so.  I can strongly recommend the Yes 4G service to those traveling the stretch of highway anytime.

Express bus operators can also use this service to offer wireless internet to their passengers, if they wanted to. It can be a value added service on top of their transportation service. This can allow passengers to work while on the go and if the journey is 4-hours long, that is significant.

iMyn