Begun, the iPhone price plan war has
Starhub and M1 announced yesterday that they will start selling the iPhone tomorrow. And the much awaited iPhone price plan from the 2 Telco is finally released. As predicted, they will be fighting using the price plan. In fact, we already saw some action yesterday.
Starhub was the first to announce their price plan yesterday morning. M1 announced their price plan early yesterday afternoon. On seeing M1′s impressive data bundle package, Starhub increased its 3G SmartSurf plans’ data bundle from 1 GB to 12 GB. And that effectively made Singtel data bundle look very puny when placed side by side with M1 and Starhub offer.
Singtel really needs to update their iPhone price plan if they wish to retain the customer they have won over when they had the iPhone exclusive. When placed side by side, Singtel’s price plan lost to the 2 new comers in all areas. The biggest difference is the data bundle. Can you believe that the cheapest iPhone plan from Singtel is having only 500mb data bundle? And the worst part is Singtel doesn’t have a data usage cap if you exceed the bundled data.
But the battle is not just on pricing. The quality of service is also very important. Generally, iPhone use lots of 3G data. The 3 Telco needs to ensure that their network is able to handle the load. Especially M1 which is giving out unlimited data bundle for the iPhone Extreme and iPhone Unlimited plan. Giving lots of data bundle is useless if you have difficulties using them.
I’ve come up with a table that put the 3 Telco price plan side by side so that you can compare them easily. (Please let me know if there is any typo)
| Telco | Singtel | M1 | Starhub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone Plans | iFlexi Lite | iPhone Value | SmartSurf 100 |
| Monthly Sub | $39 | $36 | $38 |
| Local Call | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| SMS/MMS | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| Data Bundle | 12GB | 10GB | 12GB |
| iPhone 3G 8GB | $398 | $398 / Take3 | $388 |
| iPhone 3GS 16GB | $548 | $518 | $538 |
| iPhone 3GS 32GB | $678 | $658 | $668 |
| Telco | Singtel | M1 | Starhub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone Plans | iFlexi Value | iPhone Lite | SmartSurf 300 |
| Monthly Sub | $56 | $56 | $58 |
| Local Call | 200 | 300 | 300 |
| SMS/MMS | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| Data Bundle | 12GB | 10GB | 12GB |
| iPhone 3G 8GB | $138 | $98 / Take 3 | $118 |
| iPhone 3GS 16GB | $288 | $248 | $268 |
| iPhone 3GS 32GB | $438 | $398 | $418 |
| Telco | Singtel | M1 | Starhub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone Plans | iFlexi Plus | iPhone Extreme | SmartSurf 700 |
| Monthly Sub | $95 | $98 | $98 |
| Local Call | 500 | 700 | 700 |
| SMS/MMS | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| Data Bundle | 12GB | Unlimited | 12GB |
| iPhone 3G 8GB | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| iPhone 3GS 16GB | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| iPhone 3GS 32GB | $138 | $98 | $108 |
| Telco | Singtel | M1 | Starhub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone Plans | iFlexi Premium | iPhone Unlimited | SmartSurf Unlimited |
| Monthly Sub | $205 | $198 | $205 |
| Local Call | 1500 | Unlimited | 2000 |
| SMS/MMS | 1500 | Unlimited | 2000 |
| Data Bundle | 12GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| iPhone 3G 8GB | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| iPhone 3GS 16GB | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| iPhone 3GS 32GB | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Few things to take note:
The pricing was taken from the 3 Telco’s website on 9 Dec 2009.
M1 also gives you free calls to 3 M1 numbers
Data usage cap for M1 is $36.38.
Data usage cap for Starhub is $30.
Data usage cap for Singtel is $30.
You won’t see a sudden jump in users from Singtel to M1/Starhub because most of the existing iPhone users have their contract up till Aug 2010. And those who wanted an iPhone would have already gotten a iPhone already. The only group that M1/Starhub is able to capture now is those who are unable to switch to Singtel because of contract or those who find Singtel’s pricing too expensive.
This is just a warm up for the 2 telco. The big battle will be when Apple release a new iPhone sometime next year. That will be an interesting price war to look out for.
Begun, the iPhone price plan war has.
Update: Someone created a Google Spreadsheet for the iPhone pricing.
Update on 9 Dec: Singtel updated all the iPhone plan’s data bundle to 12GB and a $30 cap.
Update on 10 Dec: Starhub updated its cap to $30.
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6 Comments »
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Thanks for this!
It really doesn’t make much difference if the data bundle is increase to 14 or even 20 gb.. 10 gb of data is just too much..
I agree that singtel plan data bundle is just too little but i feel that at the moment m1 given the monthly subscription and price of handset.
What we should really look at now is the price of the phones and monthly sub.. giving 2 more gb from the 10gb wont help me…
data usage cap is 48dollars, you forgot to mention that it is also monthly
it’s just not worth it. 48dollars? I rather pay 10 monthly
I agree with evan. For users who don’t watch Youtube wherever they don’t have access to a computer, 1GB is definitely more than enough. I think Facebook and Twitter won’t eat up too much data usage either?
I also referred to this website (http://apcmag.com/analysis_how_much_data_do_you_need_for_iphone_3g.htm) for a gauge of how much is enough. Granted, it’s outdated by a year, but it still holds relevant IMHO.
Evan & ohseekay: Actually, having more data bundle means you can tether without worrying that you will exceed your data limit. 10GB vs 12GB doesn’t make much difference. But 1GB vs 10GB/12GB is a huge difference. Which explains why Singtel up their data bundle to 12GB today.
Sigh…. must have competition then they will do something
@DK: Yep, damn tat red telco. If the other 2 telco din join in the iphone market, they will still be charging ppl high price with low data plans.