Update 13/12/2012: Added in Maxis iValue Simple plan.
Update: Thanks for the head’s up guys, I’ve altered the pricing for Celcom.
Finally, now that Celcom has unveiled its iPhone 5 pricing, which is cheaper? Which provides more with their packages? This time round while Maxis and DiGi stuck to their iPhone-specific plans, iValue and iDiGi, Celcom introduced the new iPhone with its new First Plans.
Here’s an overall comparison of all the iPhone 5 plans provide, click on the image to enlarge. Hit the break for more, including the Value Added Services for each telco.
Maxis iPhone 5 plans comes (iValue 1, iValue 2, iValue 3 and iValue 4) comes with extra local calls and SMS for the same network (Maxis to Maxis).
All the plans comes with 10GB of cloud storage on the telco’s very own LOKER and free 2 months of One Music subscription.
Celcom on the other hand comes with free Celcom First WiFi of 1GB on each plan. On top of that, if you exceed the data usage allowance, just send an SMS to celcom “BROADBAND VOLUME” and send it to 22188; then type ON VOL1GB and send to 22188 and receive additional data of 1GB.
How Celcom’s free calls, SMS and MMS works is, taking the most expensive package for instance, there is a pool of 1,500 which can be used between calls, SMS and MMS. This means that if you make 500 minutes of calls, you have 1,000 left for use between the three. The benefit of such bundled usage is that if you hardly send any SMS (who sends SMS when there’s Whatsapp on the iPhone?), the freebies wouldn’t be wasted, instead, you can use the free pool credit for calls.
Of course, we just summarized out the numbers and the total cost of ownership after the contract period for each plans available out there. What you pick shouldn’t be determined solely by these factors. Coverage plays a very important role, you can’t imagine the frustration I go through with the lack of service in my most frequently visited places – work and home! So picking a reliable telco should be of utmost importance. Sorry, Maxis has updated its FAQ page, there will be no charges when you exceed the quota. Also, do note that Maxis still charges you per megabyte when you exceed the data allocation, which is also an important factor to watch as well, especially if you are a heavy user. In my opinion, I would say Celcom provies the best overall this time round. Personally, I’m a heavy data user who hardly makes any calls and SMS and they provide the most data – 4.05GB for their cheapest plan.
Let us know what you think, and thanks for your patience in dealing with the many confusions I’ve caused. Let us know if you need to know more.
Monthly Commitment Price Comparison
RM100 and Below
RM120 to RM161
RM150 to RM250
Data Comparison
2GB and Below
2.1GB to 4GB
5GB and Above
I have to admit, this is by far the most complicating and most through price comparison I’ve ever done, so please do comment below if you spot any error or if you would like us to include in more factors to compare.
It looks like this time round, Celcom provides the cheapest total cost of ownership. What I personally like most about Celcom’s plans is that it bundles up the free minutes, SMS and MMS instead of allocating a fixed amount for each. I hardly send out any SMS so each month, whatever that’s bundled with my package always goes to a waste. Celcom also comes with the most data, starting with 4.05GB while the rest only provides 1GB to 2GB of data for their cheapest plans.
For more information about each plans, you can check out our separate posts for Maxis, DiGi and Celcom.
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