Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad today officially announced the availability of two new broadband devices, the Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Stick and Celcom Broadband Wireless Gateway, under its broadband offering for the enterprise market.

“In today's context, mobility and connectivity are no longer considered extravagance but a need. Celcom understands our customers' need to stay connected at all times, thus, we are introducing these two wireless broadband access products to enhance the way they can utilise the Celcom Mobile Broadband service anytime and anywhere,” said Dato Sri Shazalli Ramly, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom.

The Vodafone USB Stick supports download speed of up to 7.2Mbps (Celcom HSDPA however is currently capable of up to 3.6 Mbps speed) and runs on GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA networks. It looks similar to a normal USB thumb drive and has a SD card slot. The modem cost RM699 under the Business Broadband Basic plan with a monthly fee of RM68 (3G) and a 24 months contract. Business Broadband Advance users gets to buy the modem at RM599 with a 24 months contract and pay a monthly fee of RM98 (HSDPA).

The Celcom Broadband Wireless Gateway modem runs on the HSDPA, 3G, EDGE and GPRS network. It is capable of creating a WiFi hotspot utizing the Celcom Wireless broadband network. According to Huawei; technically that hotspot could handle 32 users at a time.

The Celcom Broadband Wireless Gateway is offered to Business Broadband plan customers. It comes with a 24 months contract and a RM90 monthly fee.

“We have more than 100,000 broadband customers now and so far, the response (for our broadband services) has been encouraging,” added Dato Sri Shazalli Ramly.

According to Kevin Henry, Vice President, Head of Business Innovation Division, 5% of the Celcom Broadband customers are utilizing about 85% of the network. These customers are largely from the D68 plan that offers speed up to 384Kbps.

"Celcom will be in the near future controlling users that hog the network and are not willing to pay more than their allocation given per month. This will be inline with our Fair Usage Policy to ensure 95% of our customers enjoy good broadband experience throughout". he added.