DISCLAIMER: I am writing this as an independent consumer looking to replace my super decade-old mobile plan. I am in no way being paid to write this. I share this out as a reference for those who are also in my shoes at the moment. The plans shared here are from the perspective of a single data line user. If you are in a bundle plan, the calculations and assumptions will be different so please do your own math.
Introduction
I just got a bill for a 1GB over limit charge from SingTel, making my monthly bill of around $45 dollars jumped to $75. The plan that I had was an old plan, a 12GB 4G with the phone call and SMS that I had contracted when buying the Samsung Galaxy S2. Yeah, you read right. Galaxy S2 from 2011. Prior to that, I was already on SingTel since 2000 when I shifted from m1.
Of course in the scheme of things, paying around $75 for 12GB is a steal for the old phone linked plans but definitely overpaying when SIM Only plan gets more mileage for the same price.
So here is the break down doing some research today. I am quoting what I see without the additional GB because I just hate the hassle of looking for other promotions if the plan only gives you the free stuff after a certain period of time. And the No Contract rule is used as the base comparison as usual…and the GB quoted are after so-called promotional periods.
I did not compare the provision for Caller ID. Why? Because people call me from Messenger and WhatsApp these days so I know who called.
SingTel – 3GB for $20 (No phone, No SMS)
SingTel gives a No Contract 15GB for $20…only if you switch to the Telco. The other plans for SingTel customers without a contract is 3GB for $20. No telephone. No SMS.
This is what you get after more than 18 years with them. How I know? M1 was getting people to switch from their Zero Plans on CDMA to GSM in 2000 so they can use the CDMA frequencies for 4G by enticing people with free Nokia 3310. I decided to keep the Zero Plan line until I switch it to Circles Life last year and got another line with SingTel in the same year.
Data after promo period and the total cost for the year: 3GB ,$240
M1 – 3GB for $20 (100 min, 100 SMS)
M1 did the same type of promotion like the rest. the good thing is they allow re-contracts on a 12-month basis that at least gives something back for returning customers.
What I do appreciate is the M1 Data Passport that you can count against your local data from $10 (promotional rate) for places such as Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, USA and other places. It will be quite expensive for some and usually, I buy the local Tourist SIM card from Qoo10 or Shoppee pretty easily these days.
Data after promo period and total cost for the year: 3GB ,$240
StarHub – 3GB for $25 (100 min, No SMS)
Same as the other two telcos.
Data after promo period and the total cost for the year: 3GB, $300
Circles Life MVNO – 4GB for $28 + 2GB for porting over (100 min, No SMS)
Yes, I stripped away the free 6GB free for 12 months. So my basic is still 4GB. However, there’s a porting over free 2GB that lasts forever. I put this out to highlight so you make a better decision. If I take away all the promotional fluff and I can focus on what I have after 12 months.
After 12 months I still have an additional 1GB (500MB after every 6 months with them) as loyalty benefit so total I have 7GB. No such thing from the other Telcos which is totally sad that Singaporeans don’t really think long term. I will talk about this later.
And in the meantime, they are dangling $120 cash back for 2019 while stocks lasts.
Circles Life partners with M1.
Data after promo period and the total cost for the year: 7GB, $216 (after the $120 cash back promotion) or $336 without cashback.
MyRepublic MVNO – 9GB for $35 (1000 min, 1000 SMS)
I feel this is the best of the lot if you are a new line and follow the old way of doing things by the telcos. Of course, they did something good too. If you go over 9GB, they throttle your data connection and so you are good for basic stuff but suffer when tethering to your laptop.
My Republic partners with StarHub.
Data after promo period and the total cost for the year: 9GB, $420
Zero1 MVNO – 3GB for $29.99 (200 min, 200 SMS)
Same as MyRepublic, they throttle the connection once you hit the 3GB limit. 3GB is very low these days with good 4G connection. It is gone in a flash.
Zero1 partners with SingTel.
Data after promo period and the total cost for the year: 3GB, $359.88
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Verdict
I need to say and to be upfront that my usage is definitely above 10GB a month and if I add all the promotional data, the main Telcos can and will meet my needs at the price quoted above.
However, I do take into account, what will happen after one year and that’s where a good customer retention programme comes in. Whenever after a year you find yourself looking for a Telco to jump to, it adds another level of anxiety and perhaps billing issues. I tend to stick with a company if it gives benefits and the opportunity costs of staying are acceptable.
The company to beat is really Circles Life with its pro-active customer retention program. They do not have a contract to lock you in and use the bonus data as the bait to keep you with them. Imagine all the churning costs being saved and all the marketing dollars being used for the right people, your paying customers that stayed with you.
What happens after 1 year for me? I will have to contend with 7GB of data and perhaps need to add the $20 for 20GB for 3 more years just to be on the safe side. After that, I can take out the $20 and revert to 10GB for $28. Then again, I can also opt to add data for ‘heavy days’ (ahem) at $3 per day for unlimited data and potentially costs much lesser than the $48 in my previous plan.
The thing I like is the flexibility to keep costs low. This is something that cannot be done on-the-fly for the other Telcos. I stand to be corrected on this.
So you already got the drift. Circles Life now has both my lines…and my total costs per month for both lines are 18+12GB (with promo data) at $46 (with the cashback amount) for 2019. After a year, it will be 13GB+7GB at $56. Perhaps by that time, I will combine the lines and just get 33GB at $50.
If You Are A Data Hogger…
If you are in the market with a $50 budget then things get very very interesting. With $50 as the maximum budget, you can get the following data packages. Again, I did not include the promotional data so you know what you are paying for after the promo period lapses.
SingTel – 8GB M1 – 30GB StarHub – 30GB Circles Life – 27GB (again, the 500MB is added after 6 months with them. So is 1GB every anniversary)
So if you are in the market for big data, then go for the $50 plans instead. In fact for M1 and StarHub, their $50 plans are the real deal. I am definitely not sold for the short-lived promotional stuff being pandered now. If they put their focus on KEEPING their customers, I would have signed with them within a heartbeat.
Photo by mentatdgt on Pexels.com
The State of Singapore Telco and our attitudes as consumers
I am by no means going to ‘scold’ people but would want people to read know why the Telcos are acting this way. Simply put, Singaporeans as consumers are a very short-term minded lot…that is, we just use promotions to inform or decision making process.
I got my ‘education’ when I am forced between getting a new contract at 3GB with a new phone at the same plan price (with hefty paid up cost for the phone) or stick with my 12GB plans and buy phones as and when it is spoiled. During that ‘wandering years’, I have 2 ASUS pad-phones that I bought with hard earned money but saved a ton with my 12GB plan intact. When those ASUS phones got slow, I got my Xiaomi Redmi and it was a great working phone then.
As time goes on, the budget phones are now doing as well as the top-tier premium phones and so we DO have an option to get the lower plans without sacrificing much when it comes to daily mobile computing with our phones. I can easily accept the Nokia 7.1, Honor 10 Plus, Nova 3, OnePlus 6T as great phones without doing any re-contracting while still keeping your finance sane. How to do the math? Here.
But our penchant for all the greatest and latest means our telco costs can only go up for both consumers and telcos. So I urge everyone, it is time to think long-term and push Telcos to treat us customers as people worthy to keep as customers by not re-contracting just because of the shiny new phone.
We as consumers should also work out the sums between having the latest gadgets versus buying a phone that is more than enough for daily use and opt to go for a SIM-only plan.
Their focus on getting new customers is just driving costs up when in fact, keeping their own paying customers is a way more cost efficient and thereby increases profit margins. Their old methods of keeping customers through contracts may be effective for a while but all the marketing costs like ads and media buys can only go so far.
What do I contrast this with? Yes, loyalty bonuses. Without paying a single cent, Circles Life is able to keep me simply because I am held ‘hostage’ by the bonus data which is around 8GB now (through referrals and loyalty programs). I need not look at advertisements or posters at MRT stations. I just need to look at my bills and the increasing data that I have to convince me whether to stay or leave. CL just use those marketing dollars to attract new people whereas the other telcos are constantly attracting and having the fear of people leaving.
Who got the brunt of such a situation? StarHub. Its “People Hate Telcos” campaign message just says it out loud what is wrong for the past decade. At least StarHub woke up somewhat and that did cause me to look at them from a different perspective.
This article above just show even with transparent telco plans, an effective loyalty program that gives what the consumer wants has far more attracting power than your typical advertising campaigns. And yes, just give people what they want without all those 12-months promotional thingie. It just muddles the message yet again.
TPG – The Telco story of the next 2 years
In Techgoondu, there is an article by my Editor Alfred Siew who views that TPG will have its work cut out for it and by and large, he has a point. The MVNOs has disrupted the market and perhaps new ideas to jolt the market is hard to come by. If the Telcos just use the same old tactics, definitely having new ideas will not be easy simply because their billing systems are still in pre-historic age. There are loopholes to take advantage of definitely such as Telcos unwillingness to introduce a more aggressive loyalty program that actually matters. I won’t say that much since I have already touched it above.
The second thing is 5G. This is where TPG as a Telco can at least use as a platform to launch their services. They will have a trial in 2019 and I signed up for it. Shall see how it goes.
The third – Transparent billing. Circles Life is now doing a great thing, working with phone manufacturers to offer their phones on instalment basis and is not linked to the mobile connection costs. i.e. When you paid up your mobile phone with a 12 or 24-month instalment plan, your total Telco bill WILL decrease. If TPG is able to buy the phone in bulk, sell it at the REAL ‘subsidised’ price, and delinking it from the Telco bill, TPG WILL have business. How about pushing your unused data to the following month? Perhaps to stop the data from ballooning, one can set a time limit to utilise the unused data.
TPG certainly has its work cut out for it but if they are clever enough to look at the situation and able to combine the best practices and workings of both the Telco and MVNO and with a touch of Australian Gungho spirit to be different, TPG will have a foothold. I will still say in the end the crucial thing is about Customer Retention and not contracts.
DISCLAIMER: I am writing this as an independent consumer looking to replace my super decade-old mobile plan. I am in no way being paid to write this. I share this out as a reference for those who are also in my shoes at the moment. The plans shared here are from the perspective of a single data line user. If you are in a bundle plan, the calculations and assumptions will be different so please do your own math. If you feel I did help you and you do want to get Circles Life, you can use my code BOOSTER to get that registration fee discount. However, there are other promotional codes to use too so do look out for them to gain maximum benefit.
Here’s to a blessful, prosperous, successful 2019!
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