Our 3 local Telco’s Data Roaming charges are daylight robbery
I might be going Malaysia for 2 days soon. Knowing that I’ll die of internet withdrawal syndrome if I go without internet connection for too long, I went to check the Data Roaming charges to Malaysia. And I think I almost die with white foaming at mouth when I saw the charges by our 3 local telco.
Singtel’s Data Roaming charges to Malaysia is S$22 per MB.
Starhub’s Data Roaming charges to Malaysia is S$20.48 per MB.
M1′s Data Roaming charges to Malaysia is also S$20.48 per MB.
Before you start mouth foaming, Singtel has a Bridge DataRoam plan that gives you cheaper roam data charges to 11 countries. S$24 for 5mb or S$48 for 15mb or S$96 for 40mb. Wow. At least its not as bad as S$22 for 1mb. But still, its enough for anyone to have seizures and die with mouth foaming.
And I love the way Singtel puts it in their FAQ. “For 5MB, you can download an average of 100 emails. (Based on an average size of 50 kilobytes per email.)” Wow, suddenly I feels much better. I can read 100 emails for the price of $24 ONLY. Isn’t that amazing? But you can’t visit my blog for more than 4 times because my blog is around 1mb plus. Which means if you are on pay as you roam and browsing my website, you are paying more than S$22 everytime you load my blog.
Wah. *Seizures* *Mouth foaming*
Seriously, its like daylight robbery. In fact, the local pay as you use data charges are also daylight robbery. Come on, why is 3G data pricing so much like 56kbps internet pricing 8 years ago? All this is hindering the public from taking up the service.
I know the pricing of Data Roaming is decided by both the local telco and their partners in other countries. But honestly, they should really relook at the pricing. Reducing the charges will increase the number of people using the service. What the point of charging so high when everyone turn off their data when roaming?
On the side note, Malaysia’s Celcom has a Broadband Prepaid data card that cost RM$25 (pre-loaded credit of RM$20) that gives you 24 hours unlimited data at RM$6 or 7 days unlimited data at RM$20. Now that makes much more sense.
Update: If you are intending to buy a data card with Celcom, please read this blog entry first.
Related posts:
7 Comments »
3 Pingbacks »
-
[...] – Jacob 69er: Photos: 48hr hunger strike ends; over 800 people sign petitions – Dee Kay Dot As Gee: Our 3 local Telco’s Data Roaming charges are daylight robbery – Anonymous_X: Red bull gives you wiiings because.. [Thanks [...]
-
[...] – Jacob 69er: Photos: 48hr hunger strike ends; over 800 people sign petitions – Dee Kay Dot As Gee: Our 3 local Telco’s Data Roaming charges are daylight robbery – Anonymous_X: Red bull gives you wiiings because.. [Thanks wacky_artz] – AngryAngMo: The Complete [...]
-
[...] to attend the launch of Nokia N97 at Kuala Lumpur. So before I left for KL, I did some research on the autoroaming data charges and found out that its better to get a pre paid card there. In fact, Celcom has the best data plans [...]
Leave a comment!
I was in Malaysia for a few days, but didn’t want to buy a prepaid broadband line there, so I just used went Internet cold turkey for the 4 days I was there; although I still used the AGPS function along the highway just to see where I was. It costs me around 40 cents per use of the AGPS. And I was really glad that I didn’t use data like I do back at home
pkchukiss’s last blog post..Implications of AWARE’s Extra-Ordinary General meeting
pkchukiss: What phone are you using? Using google map?
If you are using google map, I think the $0.40 is mainly from data charges while downloading the map.
have fair use policy
http://www.celcom.com.my/cep/xresources/CelcomCORP/broadband/html/fair_usage.html
speed will be throttled when exceed data volume
*just in case you didn’t notice it
PasserbyA: thanks for pointing out. Didn’t notice that. But I doubt I will exceed 5gb. So I should be quite safe.
To be fair, our 3 telcos don’t make all that much – it’s the local operators who make the killing when we roam on their networks…
And the rates are horrendously expensive in China – whether it’s voice or data…
During the 1997/98 tech stocks boom, telcos bidded ridiculously high prices for rights to use 3G technology.
During that frenzied period , 3G was touted to be the next gold mine
After the tech bubble burst, all the service providers are still have to recoup their initial investment into the rights to use 3G. And the consumers are paying for their bad call.
So dont hold your breath for 3G data rates to fall drastically anytime soon.
And I dont think the service providers will be keen to introduce any 4G or leapfrog technology until they’ve got back most of their initial cost.
i spent 120dollars on SMSes in malaysia in a week.
around 70cents for each SMS.
i get missed calls reminders via SMS, which is useless. At least it’s free.
but anyways i think post-paid stuff are like so overpriced, pre-paid seems cheaper, just a matter of convenience