Tuesday, July 7, 2009

article About Singapore�s BEST 3.5G broadband for mobile phone Plan (Jul 09) - (all-vga-corner)

Time flies and prices just got cheaper and we are talking about 3.5G plan with more 3.5G phones readily available in the market.

Again, the conditions for comparison must be stated before we proceed further:

  1. We aim to identify the BEST VALUE plan - broadband for mobile phone (not mobile device or notebook).
  2. Monthly data transfer is UNLIMITED. Those plan not included in this review are purely rip off plans to slaughter so-called causal or low-end users.
  3. Typical broadband mobile access speed of 3G and 3.5G phone are limited to 384 kbps and 3 Mbps (max) respectively.
  4. The minimum download speed is fixed at 2Mbps to optimize the capability of 3.5G mobile phone.
  5. Plan must support data and voice in the SAME sim card.
  6. We are focusing on ONE (1) SIM card for voice and data to explore the full functionalities of 3G/3.5G mobile phone.

Someone mentioned that my table is too complicated to compare. So I have broken them into stages for your easy viewing.


STAGE 1 - 100 minutes free incoming plans

Let's look at what is available for mobile broadband + voice (both data and voice) for 100min free incoming plan. This target segment consists of low-end voice users.

Telco

Singtel

Starhub

M1

Singtel

100min plan

iOne Plus

Powervalue 100

Sun Saver

3G Flexilite

Free minutes

100

100

100

100

Basic charge

25.68

25.68

25.68

39.00

Unlimited data plan

37.00#

38.72

27.10

500MB^

100 min

62.68

64.40

52.78

39.00

150 min

70.46*

72.43

60.81

46.78

200 min

78.23*

80.45

68.83

54.55


*Singtel charges excess minute at S$0.204 (peak) and S$0.107 (off peak). For simplicity, we take the average at S$0.1555.

#Singtel offers 50GB limit for mobile bb plan. We presume there will not be any excess usage above the limit.

^This new plan is included for comparison but 500MB can easily be exceeded in view of the heavy traffic that the current applications are running.

On first look, there seems to be a conspiracy between the 3 telcos offering similar plan at the magic number of S$25.68. However, due to the cheaper mobile broadband (bb) rate offered, M1 becomes the best plan in our first stage selection for unlimited data use.


STAGE 2 � 300 minutes free incoming plans

For the mid-end users for voice, we compare more plans offered by the telcos.

Telco

Singtel

Starhub

M1

300min plan

iTwo Plus

Powervalue 300

Sun Saver Plus

Basic charge

48.15

48.15

48.15

Unlimited data plan

37.00#

38.72

27.10

300 min

85.15

86.87

75.25

500 min

116.25*

118.97

107.35

700 min

147.35*

151.07

139.45


#Singtel offers 50GB limit for mobile bb plan. We presume there will not be any excess usage above the limit.

Again, M1 offers the BEST value plan for Stage 2. For high-end users, you can see that it is also M1 who offered the best since it has the lowest mobile bb charges.

STAGE 3 � Other mobile broadband plans

Singtel has introduced new new plans to capture bb market. But are they worth the money? Definitely not, the plans launched are not competitive with M1 V2Mbps plan.

Telco

Singtel

Singtel

Singtel

M1

Plans

3G Flexi

3G Flexi Plus

Plus

V2Mbps

Free minutes

200

500

300

0

Basic charge

48.15

95.00

48.15

27.10

Data limit

50 GB

50 GB

1GB

Unlimited

100 min

35.10

200 min

56

43.10

300 min

70.10

62.08

51.10

500 min

101.20*

95.00*

93.18*

67.10

700 min

132.30*

188.30*

124.28*

83.10


STAGE 4 � Evaluation

In this evaluation stage, we take the best plans from the above and combine them into this table. They are all benchmarked against only 1 plan (M1 V2Mbps).

Free minutes

Telco

Plan

Data (GB)

Charges (S$)

Saving over the 2nd best plan

100

M1

Sun Saver

Unlimited

52.78

Singtel

3G FlexiLite

0.5

39.00

M1

V2Mbps

Unlimited

35.10

50.37%

200

Singtel

3G Flexi

50

56

M1

V2Mbps

Unlimited

43.10

29.93%

300

M1

Sun Saver Plus

Unlimited

75.25

M1

V2Mbps

Unlimited

51.10

47.26%

500

Singtel

3G Flexi Plus

50

95.00

M1

V2Mbps

Unlimited

67.10

41.58%

700

Singtel

iTwo Plus

1

96.86

M1

V2Mbps

Unlimited

83.10

16.56%


It is no surprise that M1 V2Mbps stands out as the clear winner in all categories from 100 to 700 min free incoming calls. Where is STARHUB in the final comparisons? No idea. They are totally not in the bb league.

STAGE 4 � Conclusions

Since M1 V2 plan beats all categories, is there any catch? Yes, there are. We list them below for your reference and consideration:

  1. Why we are not including V4Mbps or V7.2Mbps? The answer is obvious. Most of the 3.5G mobile phones have a maximum download speed of only 3.6Mbps. So V2Mbps is the optimal plan in this selection.
  2. SMS uses are not factored into our discussion. My question to you is - Why use SMS when you have MSN?
  3. M1 V2 plan is a per minute billing and not per second billing.
  4. There is no discount on 3.5G mobile phone as compared to regular sign-up for new mobile plan. A brand new 3.5G mobile phone may cost S$450 - S$1300. Do not get a 3G phone for mobile bb plan because the maximum download speed is limited to 0.384Mbps (for example Nokia E63).

Despite its shortcomings, we still consider M1 V2Mbps plan to be the BEST valued 3.5G mobile bb plan for a 3.5G mobile phone. So after selecting the plan, what 3.5G phone should be purchased and what are the applications to tap the full capabilities of the bb plan? We shall discuss next time.

References

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