An Empirical Evaluation on the Preference of Mobile Broadband in Malaysia with Analytic Hierarchy Process Model

Mobile broadband provides high speed wireless Internet access via mobile devices to the end users. It has been growing rapidly nowadays due to the advance in technology. It has transformed the way students learn by providing them an efficient way to get access to learning resources, peers and tutors easily. Mobile broadband has not only facilitated their studies, it has also improved the quality of social life and communication. The objective of this paper is to determine the priorities of decision criteria in the selection of mobile broadband among the undergraduate students with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model. The decision criteria identified in this study are price, speed, download limit, network coverage, customer service and contract period. Besides that, this paper also aims to determine the most preferred mobile broadband among Digi, Celcom, Maxis, Yes, P1 and U Mobile with AHP model. The results of this study show that Celcom is the most preferred mobile broadband followed by Maxis, Yes, U Mobile, Digi and P1 among the undergraduate students in Malaysia. Network coverage, speed and download limit are ranked as the top three influential decision criteria in the selection of mobile broadband among the undergraduate students. The significance of this paper is to determine the most preferred mobile broadband as well as the most influential decision criteria in the preference of mobile broadband by the undergraduate students with AHP model.