In just a few months, a lot has happened in Malaysia’s telco space. Celcom and U Mobile were one of the first few to introduce its new postpaid plans, followed by Digi. Maxis took a while, but the company has finally refreshed its MaxisONE plans to offer even more data.
Now that the dust has settled, let’s take a closer look at the offerings from the big four telcos in Malaysia: Maxis, Celcom, Digi and U Mobile. With a total of 25 postpaid plans from these telcos (12 from Digi alone!), it can be tough to compare them all in one location. Let’s take a look at all postpaid plans in Malaysia.
Maxis
Maxis has finally refreshed its MaxisONE plans, giving customers even more data than before. Maxis now has a total of six postpaid plans to choose from – four MaxisONE plans, SurfMore 50, and Maxis GO. Existing MaxisONE plan customers are upgraded automatically to the new MaxisONE plans, with unlimited calls and SMS bundled as a standard feature. Refer to the table below for the details on each MaxisONE plan:
Maxis also refreshed the MaxisONE Share supplementary line. For the same RM48 monthly commitment, each supplementary line gets an additional 5GB of data per month alongside unlimited calls and texts to all networks.
There’s also a new feature called Data Pool for MaxisONE and MaxisONE Share subscribers. Data Pool allows the main and supplementary lines to share their entire data allocation. For example, a MaxisONE Plan 158 subscriber with three MaxisONE Share supplementary lines can share 30GB of data between the four lines. The principal user also has the ability to control how much data can be shared to the supplementary lines using the MyMaxis app.
Other than that, MaxisOne Plan 128 users and above also enjoy free Spotify Premium subscriptions worth RM15/month. All MaxisONE plan users will also get 5GB of data which is specifically allocated for video streaming on iflix, Viu, Eros Now and Hopster. If you’ve used up the allocated 5GB data, you can buy an additional 5GB for just RM5. Take note that this quota is only valid for 24 hours, and for video streaming only.
In addition, MaxisONE plans also come with unlimited social chat on chat apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Line and Facebook, as well as zero PPU data charges when your high-speed data is used up; the connection is simply throttled to 64kbps. That means you will still be able to use the chat apps, use Waze, and even surf the net, if you’re patient enough.
Additional Features:
Celcom
Celcom now has a total of three postpaid plans to choose from, each catering to the different needs of different customers. Its most affordable plan would be the First Blue plan that has a monthly commitment fee of RM45. It comes with 2GB of standard data and an additional 2GB for weekends (500MB each week), as well as 50 minutes free calls and 50 free SMS to all networks.
For the First Gold plan, Celcom has revamped it to provide more data – 5GB standard and 5GB for weekends (1.25GB each week). The plan comes with unlimited calls and SMS to all networks, for a monthly commitment fee of RM80. However, this is merely a promotional price offer, which will end on 31 May 2016. Celcom did not reveal what will happen to the plan after this period.
Celcom’s most premium postpaid plan would be the First Platinum. For RM150 a month, subscribers will be getting unlimited calls and SMS, and a total of 18GB of data. Like Celcom’s other plans, First Platinum will only offer 9GB of standard data with 9GB distributed evenly throughout the weekends.
Additional Features:
- Yonder Music
- iFlix Access
- Zipit Chat
- Value-Added Services – (Emomi365, Big Win, Game Store)
Digi
Digi used to provide the most straightforward plans, but ever since it refreshed the Digi Postpaid plans, the telco now offers arguably the most complicated postpaid lineup. That said, if you take a closer look at them, you could be getting plenty of value for your money.
Digi has split its postpaid plans into two categories – More Internet and More Calls & SMS, each catering to different customer needs. Interestingly, Digi is offering plenty of bonuses for those who sign up before 30 June 2016 for the Digi Postpaid 68 and higher plans. These bonuses are also permanent, and will remain for the duration you are on that plan. The table below shows all twelve postpaid plans from Digi.
Besides that, Digi also recently introduced the Digi Postpaid 80 plan that offers 10GB of data and unlimited calls for RM80 a month. It’s quite similar to Celcom’s First Gold offering, and even the data quota is split between weekdays and weekends: 7GB on weekdays and 3GB distributed equally over weekends. Also, SMSes are only free to 3 Digi friends, with the rest being charged on a pay-per-use basis.
Additional Features:
U Mobile
U Mobile’s postpaid plans are straightforward and easy to understand. The Hero P70 seems to be the best-selling postpaid plan for the company because of what U Mobile is offering.
For the price of RM70 a month, customers will be getting 7GB of data along with unlimited calls and SMS to all networks. There is no Internet carry forward feature, but U Mobile is giving an additional 8GB of data for the P70 plan until the end of the year – that’s a total of 15GB of data every month until the end of 2016.
U Mobile also has an attractive supplementary line for the P70 plan. The Share 50 supplementary line adds 3GB of data per supplementary number, and each P70 line can have up to three supplementary lines. The primary and supplementary lines will share their data in their own data pool of up to 16GB. Assuming a P70 subscriber adds three Share 50 supplementary lines, this averages out to just RM45 a month, with each line allocated 4GB of data, and enjoying unlimited voice calls. SMS is charged at 3 sen to U Mobile numbers, and 8 sen to other numbers.
Apart from that, U Mobile also has the Hero P50 plan. While it may not come with unlimited calls and SMS, but it does have a certain amount of free talktime with 5GB of data for RM50/month.
As for the more affordable U28 plan, customers will be paying RM28 a month for 3GB of data with 100 SMS to U Mobile numbers and 200 SMS to other networks, making it a pretty interesting option for those looking for a cheap plan, or those looking for a secondary number.
Additional Features:
- Data Backpack
- Hero Plus Share 50 (For Hero P70 Users)
- Internet Share Plan (SP68)
Full Comparison Chart
Now that we’ve seen what each telco offers, here’s a look at the full comparison chart that includes all the postpaid plans discussed above:
Final Words
For most of us, price is most probably the first thing we look at when it comes to picking a postpaid plan. That being said, it should not be the only deciding factor. There are other aspects to consider when choosing a postpaid plan. Coverage is a factor that is just as important as price: there’s no point choosing the cheapest postpaid plan when that telco does not have strong coverage in your area.
To help with your decision, here are the 2G, 3G, and 4G coverage for each of the telcos on their individual website.
Besides that, some promotions could make the plan offer more value – just make sure they are permanent ones that stick throughout the duration of the plan, and not just a limited-time offer that expires after a period of time.
Finally, if you spend most of your time consuming content on YouTube, iflix, Spotify or other media services, you might want to consider plans that offer attractive benefits such as premium subscriptions or additional data allocations.
Postpaid plans are subjective. What might be reasonable to someone, might not be the same for someone else – that’s why all telcos come out with postpaid plans at various price points. There is no “best” postpaid plan out there, but there is one that fits the bill: your bill.
As telcos continue to offer new and better postpaid plans, we’ll continue to update this page to discuss the new plans.
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