The Apple iPhone SE has been made available in Malaysia, with a starting price of RM1999. However, if you’re looking to get the phone for slightly cheaper or via installment plan, then the major local telcos have something for you.

As expected, all four major telcos in Malaysia are ready to provide the new iPhone SE to their customers. Here’s what each is offering, as well as their associated plans:

Maxis

Maxis is the only one among the four major telcos to limit the iPhone SE plans to the 128GB model. If you’re looking for any of the other options, you’ll have to get them elsewhere.

Digi

One reason to pick Digi’s plans over any other telco is the option to get a bundle with the Apple Watch Series 5. Note that the smaller figure is for the 40mm version of the Apple Watch, while the other is for the 44mm. If you were wondering, Digi isn’t including the 64GB model for the bundle.

U Mobile

For U Mobile, eligible existing subscribers will be exempt from an upfront payment. Others will have to fork up RM720 for the Unlimited HERO P99 plan, or RM1056 for the P139. These will be reimbursed throughout the 24-month contract.

Celcom

Like Maxis, Celcom gives subscribers the option to pay for the phone upfront, or to get it via instalments via its EasyPhone Own program.

You could also get just the iPhone SE without any plan. But prices will be the same as if you picked one up straight from Apple.

Among all the offers here, Digi stands out with its Apple Watch Series 5 bundle. It makes its offer more interesting than the usual telco bundle we often see. But on the flip side, it’s a little unfortunate for those who are looking to sign up for a Maxis plan who want an iPhone SE configuration beyond the 128GB storage option.

For more details on what each telco is offering, you can check out the iPhone SE plans at their respective websites, as linked below.

(Source: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile, Celcom)

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A recent document has revealed that 700MHz spectrum bands have been allocated to selected telco companies last month including Altel, Celcom, Digi, Maxis, and TM. The document showed that the move was made under the direction of Saifuddin Abdullah, the current Minister of Communications and Multimedia.

The 700MHz spectrum bands have been considered as one of the 5G pioneer bands by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). On 1 January 2020, MCMC has announced that it will award 2 x 30MHz of 700MHz band as well as 100MHz of 3.5GHz band to a single consortium through a tender process that was scheduled to take place within Q1 2020.

However, MCMC did not provide further updates regarding the 5G spectrum allocation up until the recent discovery of the document [pdf] within MCMC’s website by Malaysian Wireless. According to the document which was signed on 15 May 2020 and labelled as Minister Directive No 4 for 2020, here is how the 700MHz bands were divided to the five selected telcos:

In general, this means Altel and TM were given 2 x 5MHz each while Celcom, Digi, and Maxis received 2 x 10MHz respectively. As far as our knowledge goes, none of these telcos has publicly announced that they have been allocated these bands.

Meanwhile, there is no official documents so far that indicate if Minister Saifuddin has applied similar directive to the other 5G pioneer bands such as 3.5GHz and 26/28GHz. We are now reaching out to MCMC as well as the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia to find out more information regarding this sudden assignment of 700MHz spectrum bands.

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Local prepaid market has recently witnessed an intense three-way battle between Maxis, Celcom, and U Mobile, thanks to the unlimited plan that they have launched for their prepaid customers. However, Digi is somehow missing from the party.

That being said, a screenshot of the telco’s MyDigi have recently appeared online which depicted two unlimited Internet and call passes under the telco’s Internet Cili Padi line-up. One of them being a monthly pass that cost RM 35 while another one is for weekly usage and costs RM 12.

Also shown on the screenshot that was posted by Gold_Moderator on Lowyat.NET Forums, is the 3Mbps speed cap on both passes. According to several members within the same Digi Fans Club thread, these passes appeared on MyDigi only for a short while this afternoon.

Hence, some of these members thought that these Internet Cili Padi unlimited passes were just targeted promotion for selected Digi Prepaid customers. When we reached out to Digi for official comments, this is the response that we have received from Digi’s spokesperson:

“There was a system glitch that caused the error to appear on MyDigi earlier today. We have since rectified it, with the MyDigi listing now accurately reflecting our currently available offers.”

We did ask further if these unlimited Internet passes will be launched as actual products anytime soon, the telco stated that it has no further comments for the time being.

With that, we do not think that this will be the end of the story since there must be a good reason why those passes are there within the backend system in the first place. We’ll keep you posted once we hear more from Digi.

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Local telco Digi has announced its new prepaid pack, which it calls the Digi Prepaid NEXT. Like with many prepaid plans, this comes with a 30-day validity period. But the highlight here is that you can get this for as low as RM15.

So what exactly do you get for RM15, beyond the 30-day validity period? To start, you get 2GB of high-speed mobile internet data allocation. Adding on to that is unlimited access to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Digi will also throw in 1GB of extra high speed data allocation as an introductory bonus. And if you run out, you can get another more, starting from RM1.

There’s also a RM28-a-month option, which gives you 4GB of mobile data, plus 2GB of the aforementioned introductory bonus. And in addition to the unlimited access to the social media platforms mentioned before, you also get unlimited access to YouTube as well. A third option exists, that allows you to trade the unlimited data for YouTube and social media for unlimited calls to all networks instead.

Digi is also introducing another additional perks for subscribers. If you renew your plan on time, the telco will provide you with between 500MB and 2GB of free high-speed data allocation a month. You can find out more about the Digi Prepaid NEXT packs from the telco’s site, linked below.

(Source: Digi)

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Earlier this month, the local prepaid market was suddenly on fire with the release of unlimited plans by Maxis and Celcom which then prompted U Mobile to update its unlimited plan. Hence, many anticipated Digi to join in the party shortly but all we ended up was with this “system glitch”.

The telco did launch a new prepaid pack a few days later after the so-called glitch, but it still doesn’t contain any unlimited offerings. We thought that would be the end of the story but guess we spoked too soon as according to a report by Soya Cincau, Digi Prepaid Unlimited Pass made an appearance once again.

However, this time around, the RM 35 monthly pass is only available through Digi Rewards’ Box of Surprise. If you not familiar with Box of Surprise, it periodically provides offers based on users’ consumption habit.

In other words, the pass can only be obtained by a select group of customers. When we reached out to Digi for further clarifications, the telco’s representative has acknowledged the existence of the unlimited pass but provided no comment when asked if Digi has the plan to launch the unlimited pass to wider masses anytime soon.

All in all, Digi Prepaid unlimited pass is currently exclusive to chosen customers for now. So, if you do not see the pass in MyDigi app, looks like your consumption habit somehow does not match Digi’s preferences which are not something that the telco has disclosed publicly anyway.

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Digi earlier today has announced the new Digi Internet Freedom plans which essentially are the successors to its previous Home Fibre offerings. Despite being labelled as “all-in-one connectivity plan”, the actual monthly price for Internet Freedom plans is not inclusive of any Digi Postpaid plan.

The “all-in-one” part actually refers to additional benefits that come with selected Internet Freedom plans for customers with Digi Postpaid 80 and above such as 5% to 20% discount on their Digi Postpaid bill alongside a unified bill and 6-months access to Amazon Prime Video service.

That is not exactly our concern though as what made the Internet Free plans rather worrying is the fact that they cost much higher than the original Home Fibre plans. Let us remind you again: Internet Freedom plans are the successor of those Home Fibre plans that Digi launched last year.

Instead of four options as per the original Home Fibre service, there are only three options under the Internet Freedom flag. Aside from cutting out the 50Mbps plan from the list, Digi has also increased the pricing of its fibre service across the board.

Here is the comparison between the telco’s new Internet Freedom plans and the previous Home Fibre offerings:

So, in general, the Internet Freedom plans costs an additional RM 1 to RM 91 as compared to the original Digi Home Fibre plans. At the same time, Digi has also reduced the upload speed for the 100Mbps plan under the Internet Freedom 130 from 100Mbps to 50Mbps.

While there is also an additional RM 40 discount for selected Internet Freedom plans if you already on Digi Postpaid 80 or above, it still doesn’t carry much weight as well. For example, the discounted price for Internet Freedom 190 would only be RM 9 lower than previous Home Fibre 500Mbps plan which doesn’t come with such requirement and has higher upload speed.

Additionally, the discounted price for Internet Freedom 290 at RM 250 still made it more expensive than the original Home Fibre 1Gbps plan which was priced at RM 199. All in all, we found the new Digi Internet Freedom plans rather perplexing.

Nevertheless, we have since reached out to Digi to obtain further explanation regarding the price increase. So, stay tuned and we surely hope that this is not a sign of things to come.

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Digi and TM have revealed a new collaboration that will allow Digi to expand the coverage of its fibre offering throughout Malaysia. Of course, this is not the first partnership between both companies as they have been long time partners through many of their telecommunication endeavours including 5G trials and backhaul network.

Through this new collaboration, Digi will be utilizing TM’s infrastructure once again in the form of Layer 3 HSBB Network Service. Before this, Digi has already collaborated with Time dotCom, Allo Technology, and Celcom Timur to help deliver its fibre offering.

Meanwhile, the financial value of this collaboration was not revealed by either company in their joint announcement today. However, the announcement did include a statement from Digi’s Chief Marketing Officer, Loh Keh Jiat which said that it will allow Digi’s fibre service to reach 3 million additional households all over Malaysia.

This expansion will also include Sarawak as well as Sabah which is rather interesting since the state is one of Digi Home Fibre’s pilot market. All in all, it seems that Digi is quite serious in expanding the reach of its Home Fibre service although it is yet to be seen if this is the reason why the telco has significantly increased the pricing of its fibre offering recently.

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Digi recently has announced a new set of enhancements called Digi Postpaid Start for Digi Postpaid 38, 58, and 80 customers. Among them is the Internet Bonus 365 which provides up to 7.5GB, 15GB, and 30GB of free data per month for all three plans respectively.

Specifically, customers of these three Digi Postpaid plans will receive 250MB, 500MB, and 1GB of data respectively every day. In addition to that, all three plans are also eligible for another new enhancement called Loyalty Bonus which allows customers to receive up to 40GB of free data every 6 months.

Not enough with that, Digi has also increased the base quota of its Postpaid 80, 120, 160, and 190 plans by 10GB. If you already start to feel confused by the amount of data that the telco provides to its postpaid customers, here is a summary:

Digi stated that customers will receive all these new enhancements for its postpaid plan automatically by 21 August 2020. So, if you are planning to sign up with the telco or already an existing Digi Postpaid customer, expect tons of free data to be dropped on you shortly.

The post Digi Postpaid Start To Offer Free Data On Daily Basis; Higher Tier Plans Now Come With Bigger Quota appeared first on Lowyat.NET.

Immediately after the official unveiling of Galaxy Note20 and Galaxy Note20 Ultra at the Galaxy Unpacked event earlier this week, Samsung has also revealed their local prices for Malaysia. The company has also kickstarted the pre-order program for the new flagship series which means it is also time for local telcos to hop on the train.

Hence, we have scoured through the Galaxy Note20 series offerings from the four major telcos in Malaysia. Before we go further, we would like to note (heh) that all of these telcos are only offering the 5G version of the standard Galaxy Note20.

Maxis

As per Samsung’s own announcement, Maxis is also giving away the new Galaxy Buds Live TWS beans, or the Galaxy Buds Plus, depending on which model you pick. The Ultra device gets you the former, while the standard one gets you the latter.

The telco is also throwing in the Samsung UV Steriliser and an additional wireless charger for free as well, regardless of which model you pick.

Digi

At this moment, it looks like Digi is only offering the new Galaxy Note20 devices under its PhoneFreedom 365 plan but not through normal contract. In terms of free gift, you’ll still be getting either the Galaxy Buds Live or Buds Plus, depending on which model you pick.

U Mobile

U Mobile, on the other hand, is only offering the Galaxy Note20 Ultra and the standard Galaxy Note20 model  under its normal contract and not UPackage. As before though, whether or not you’re exempt from paying the upfront fee depends on if you’re already a subscriber to the telco.

For free gifts, you get three items thrown in, much like Maxis is offering. And as usual, if you’re looking at nothing but the lowest price you can get the device for, it’s hard to beat what U Mobile has to offer.

Celcom

If you’re looking get the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra at a subsidised price and as much data as possible, getting it with the Celcom MEGA Lightning XL looks like a good deal.

It’s also worth noting that Celcom also has MEGA Unlimited plans and passes, in addition to Lightning. These go up to L only, but are otherwise priced similarly to the Lightning plan and passes.

As per Maxis and U Mobile, Celcom also provides free UV Sterilizer and additional wireless charger for all of its Galaxy Note20 series pre-order customers while stocks last.

Based on our observations, if you’re looking to get a device for the lowest possible total cost among the telcos, it seems that U Mobile is the one to go for.

That said, Celcom’s MEGA Lightning XL offering for the Ultra model looks interesting in terms of value for money. At least, that is when compared to the telco’s other plans.

For more details on what each telco is offering, you can check out the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 plans at their respective websites, as linked in the source list below.

(Source: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile, Celcom)

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UPDATE (7:38 PM): Digi has rectified the issue much earlier than the original estimated recovery time. Scroll down for further details.

ORIGINAL STORY (7:06 PM):

It has come to our attention that Digi is facing network disruption at the moment. This time around, it has affected customers ability to make outgoing calls even though the signal bar on their phone did not show anything out of ordinary.

At the same time, they may not be able to utilise the telco’s USSD code to top-up their prepaid account, check their account status, and other related operations as well. The disruption seemed to have begun since a few hours ago based on the complaints that have been flooding Digi’s social media channels.

Since the telco has yet to make any specific announcement regarding this disruption, the cause and scale are not known at the moment. Nevertheless, the telco expected the recovery process to complete around 9 PM according to a reply by Digi’s customer service on Twitter:

Hi, good evening. Our technical team is still in the midst of fixing it. Approximately to complete is within 4 hours from 5pm. Our apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you.

— Digi (@digitelco) August 17, 2020

We are now reaching out to Digi representative to obtain further information regarding the disruption.

UPDATE (7:38 PM):

Digi has since rectified the issue that blocks customers from making outgoing calls, much earlier than what the telco has originally anticipated. We have independently verified this through several Digi Postpaid and Prepaid lines.

Hi. Issue has been fixed. Please try again ya. Our apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you.

— Digi (@digitelco) August 17, 2020

However, the cause of the network disruption is unknown. The mobile provider network has chosen not to provide further explanations about the incident.

The post Digi Customers Unable To Make Outgoing Calls Due To Network Disruptions (UPDATED) appeared first on Lowyat.NET.

Digi today announced the extension of its collaboration with Allo Technology, a subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) that is overseeing the commercialisation of fibre infrastructure that belonged to the utility company. Before this, both parties had worked together to provide home fibre services in Jasin, as part of TNB’s NFCP pilot project.

Through the new deal, Digi would be able to tap on Allo’s Level 2 High Speed Broadband Network Service and expand its home fibre service to more customers in selected areas within Melaka, Perak, and Cyberjaya. While the telco didn’t provide in-depth details regarding the expansion, Digi did say that the expansion would involve around 45,000 homepasses.

Since Digi is more known as a mobile telco, its home fibre ambition might not seem obvious but the company aims to connect more than 3.5 million households in the country through its service. Alongside Allo, the telco has also partnered with TM, Time, and Celcom Timur to help achieve its target.

At the moment, Digi home fibre service which is also known as Digi Internet Freedom can be obtained for RM 130 per month with a download speed of 100Mbps. There is also the 500Mbps plan that costs RM 190 per month while the 1Gbps plan is priced at RM 290.

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As per its name, the Opensignal Mobile Network Experience Report provides an insight into the performance of mobile telcos based on the data that the network analytical company have obtained through its users. For Malaysia, Opensignal published such a report twice a year and the second edition for 2020 has just been released yesterday.

Once again, Maxis and Celcom dominate the winner’s list. However, given the recent COVID-19 outbreak which has put additional strain on the country’s network, there is more to the story than just keeping track of bragging rights that local telcos can claim against each other.

Nevertheless, let’s start with the results. In the September 2020 report, Maxis has been declared as the best telco for Video Experience, Games Experience, and Download Speed Experience in which the telco had won in the first rendition of the 2020 Opensignal Mobile Experience Awards for Malaysia back in April.

Interesting enough, U Mobile has managed to snatch the Upload Speed Experience award from Maxis in this round. The telco has also sneaked into the Voice App Experience category as its joint winner alongside unifi who won in April.

Just like in the beginning of the year, Celcom once again took 4G Availability and 4G Coverage Experience under its wings for the September edition of 2020 Opensignal Mobile Experience Awards for Malaysia. Meanwhile, Opensignal has omitted the Latency Experience award for this edition though, as this category had been discontinued in May 2020.

Winners aside, if you take a closer look at the numbers for each category and compare them to the April report, you would notice that the performance of almost all telcos in Malaysia have dropped.

For example, the average download speed for Maxis has dropped from 20.4Mbps to 14.5Mbps which is a decline of around 29% even though it is still leading the market. The telco’s upload speed has also dropped at around a 26% rate, from 7.7Mbps to 5.7Mbps.

Another market leader, Celcom also experienced around a 20% drop in average download speed, making way for Digi to edge the telco in this category although with a very tiny margin. Similarly, the telco has also experienced around a 22% drop in average upload speed.

As far as average download and upload speed are concerned, somehow U Mobile showed an improvement of 36% and 8%, respectively. Meanwhile, nothing much has changed for unifi which is the smallest telco by subscribers’ size among the five listed here.

Another interesting statistic that Opensignal’s September report has revealed is the significant decline in terms of gaming experience among all five telcos. According to their scores, all of them have received a Poor rating which is far off from the Average to Good classifications that they received back in April.

As pointed out earlier, the noticeable decline in performance among Malaysian telcos is likely to do with increased usage during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, things are already recovering according to Opensignal which means the next report should look much better.

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Tonight is a big night for those who have been waiting to secure iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro models ahead of their official release into Malaysia on 13 November. Pre-orders for all four new models have been opened since 9:00 PM not only by Apple Malaysia and Apple Authorized Resellers but also telco partners.

For Digi, they are taking pre-orders for the new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Series only through its PhoneFreedom 365 instalment scheme for the time being. In case you not familiar with it, the scheme which comes with a 24-month contract offers RM 0 upfront payment as well as 0% interest rate and the ability to change to a new phone starting from month 18 of the instalment period.

In terms of monthly instalment fee, it starts at RM 98 for iPhone 12 mini while iPhone 12 can be obtained from RM 118 onwards. For the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, the starting monthly fee is slightly higher at RM 158 and RM 173, respectively.

Meanwhile, Digi claimed that customers are able to save up to RM 2595 through its pre-order program for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Series. They can also choose to have a combo package by adding Apple Watch Series 6 alongside their preferred iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro models.

Of course, please make sure that you have fully understood PhoneFredom 365’s FAQ document as well as terms and conditions before you commit to the instalment scheme. For more information, check out Digi’s official website right here.

The post Digi Offers iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Series From As Low As RM 98 Per Month appeared first on Lowyat.NET.

With the iPhone 12 series of devices open for pre-order, our local telcos have also put up pre-orders of their own for the devices. As we usually do, we’ll be taking a look at what each has to offer and comparing their prices.

But with the number of devices on offer, each having three storage configurations, we’re splitting our comparisons into two. Today, we’ll be looking at the base iPhone 12, as well as the mini variant and their storage variants.

Maxis

Maxis has deals for all the configurations for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini. They are available via the usual 24-month contract, as well as the Zerolution installments.

As you’d expect, the Zerolution deals will generally cost more than paying for the phone upfront. But the option is there if you absolutely must have one of them, but choose not to pay the upfront fee.

Digi

Among the four major telcos, Digi is the only one that doesn’t offer the iPhone 12 or the mini upfront. The only option here is its PhoneFreedom 365 installment plan.

That being said, it’s still possible to get a device for under RM5000. It’s also one of the two more affordable ways to get an iPhone 12 or the mini one via a telco plan.

U Mobile

No surprise here that U Mobile has the more affordable options to get an iPhone 12. You can choose both an upfront payment for the device or the UPackage installment plan.

Eligible postpaid plans accompanying the phones are on the limited side. Though this should not come as a surprise either.

Celcom

Celcom is definitely the odd one out here, because it’s the only telco offering a 30-month contract. That said, for the iPhone 12, only the 64GB model is available, and it’s only available as part of the EasyPhone installment plan.

If you’d prefer the usual upfront, or 24-month payment options, they are available as well. And these are the only option if you want the mini variant of the Apple smartphone.

It’s no surprise here that U Mobile offers the lowest possible cost for an iPhone 12. Upfront payments aside, both U Mobile and Digi are pretty comparable.

And for the sheer novelty, there’s Celcom’s 30-month EasyPhone installment contract. You do pay less per month for it, but you’ll be tying yourself down for longer as a trade off.

For more details on what each telco is offering, you can check out their iPhone 12 plans at their respective websites, linked below. And stay tuned for the comparison for the two Pro models.

(Source: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile, Celcom)

The post iPhone 12 And iPhone 12 mini Telco Price Comparison: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile And Celcom appeared first on Lowyat.NET.

Continuing with the telco comparisons for the iPhone 12 devices, we now have the Pro and Pro Max models. As before, every device has three storage variants. And all the telcos Digi is offering both upfront and installment payment plans.

Maxis

As before, Maxis has the full range of configurations for both the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max. And you have the option for both upfront payment and the Zerolution installments.

Though the 512GB variant of the iPhone 12 Pro Max is noteworthy, especially if you plan to get one via the two-year Zerolution plan. By the end of it, you’d have gone past the five figure threshold.

Digi

Also as before, Digi is only offering the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max via its PhoneFreedom 365 installment plan. But as you’d notice, the Digi Postpaid 80 with GBoost option is gone.

So if you want one of the Pro models, then you’ll have to sign up for a plan that’s of a higher tier. You could see it as a plan that’s more befitting the Pro names.

U Mobile

Nothing much has changed on the U Mobile side of things. The telco has basically the same offerings for the Pro and Pro Max models as it did for the base iPhone 12 and the mini.

And in typical U Mobile fashion, there’s a strong value point to be made here. This is the only telco that is offering the 512GB Pro Max device for under RM9000.

Celcom

Once again, Celcom is breaking the mold here by offering a 30-month Easyphone installment contract. But as with the base iPhone 12, this only applies for the Pro model, and only the 128GB storage variant.

Oddly enough, this one does come up to a little less than if you were to take the 24-month option. It’s not a big difference, but it’s there nevertheless.

The price gap between what Digi and U Mobile are offering have widened considerably with the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max. There’s a clear advantage that the latter has now, when taking only the price of the device into consideration, at least.

And as before, Celcom is the only one with a 30-month contract. The option is there for those who need it, maybe for those who are confident they won’t be changing phones for the next three years.

For more details on what each telco is offering, you can check out their iPhone 12 plans at their respective websites, linked below.

(Source: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile, Celcom)

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Earlier this week, Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Saifuddin Abdullah has announced several initiatives that not only focusing on citizens under the B40 category but also students that will be facing the Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) and Malaysian Higher School Certificate (STPM) next year.

Specifically, it will come in the form of a special telco package made exclusively for SPM and SPTM candidates. In its announcement, Minister Saifuddin stated that the package will be made available starting from 6 January 2021 onwards and will be valid until the end of both national exams at the end of April 2021.

Following the announcement by the minister, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has then provided additional information regarding the special package the very next day. For starters, it will be made available by Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile, and TM which likely through its cellular brand, unifi Mobile.

For RM 20, SPM and STPM candidates will receive 15GB of data that has a validity period of 30 days. However, MCMC’s announcement didn’t mention how these telcos are going to determine whether a user is an actual candidate or otherwise.

Hence, we expect the five telcos that are going to provide the special package for SPM and STPM candidates will have their own individual announcement regarding it. We will keep you updated once we hear more, so stay tuned.

(Main image: Lan Rasso @ Flickr, used under Creative Commons license. // Note: the main image was taken in 2009, years before the current pandemic.)

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Following the announcement by the Communications and Multimedia Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah last month, local telcos have begun to roll out the data package specifically made for students that are undertaking the Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) and Malaysian Higher School Certificate (STPM) exams this year.

As previously noted, the package comes with data allocation of 15GB and is priced at RM 20 per month. However, it can only be obtained by those born between 2001 to 2004 as noted by the FAQ published by Celcom and U Mobile who are among the first telcos that have published the details regarding the SPM/STPM plan on their website.

Both telcos also stated that the plan is only available for prepaid customers. Xpax users can sign up for it through the Celcom Life app although new customers may have to wait for up to 4 working days to get the SPM/STPM plan to work for them. As for U Mobile, they can obtain the package via MyUMobile app or SMS-based UMB codes.

Another important thing to note is that the SPM/STPM plan is only valid until 30 April 2021 which means that users need to pick up other data plans from 1 May 2021 onwards. If their SPM/STPM plan only expires after 30 April, they will still have access to the plan’s data allocation though.

At the time this article was published, three other telcos including Digi, Maxis, and TM have yet to provide details regarding their SPM/STPM plan, although we don’t expect them to be much different from what Celcom and U Mobile have published earlier today. Nevertheless, we will keep you posted once we receive more info from them.

(Source: Celcom, U Mobile.)

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The Samsung Galaxy S21, alongside its Plus and Ultra models, has officially been launched. Their local prices have already been announced too. Naturally, the four major local telcos have also started offering the devices to go with their postpaid plans.

For now, we’ll be taking a look at what the telcos are offering for the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. An important thing to note is that they are all only offering the 12GB + 256GB model to go with their plans. They also offer the same set of freebies, which includes the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, SmartTag, and Wireless Charger Trio pad.

Maxis

As always, we start with Maxis, which is offering both the standard and Zerolution contracts. The latter this time does have the Postpaid Share 48 plan on offer, which is pretty unusual.

That being said, the Zerolution options for the same plan will generally end up costing more in the long run. So no trends getting bucked there.

Digi

Digi is only offering the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra as part of its PhoneFreedom 365 plans. As before, it’s the only telco to not have an option to pay for the device up front.

One thing to note though is that you may notice the data quota offered is double the usual. This looks to be a special offer for the S21 series of devices. So you’ll be seeing this with the standard and Plus models as well.

U Mobile

What U Mobile has to offer for the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is also pretty familiar. As before, you can get the device with one of two plans. You can also pay for the phone upfront or via installments.

As always, if your ultimate aim is to get the device at the lowest possible price among the telco plans, here’s the place to look at. No surprise here either.

Celcom

Celcom is the only one to offer a 30-month installment contract in addition to the usual 24. The straight up payment is still available, but only with the usual 24-month contract.

That being said, there are no additional caveats here, unlike with the iPhone 12 series. After all, only one configuration of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is available through telcos.

It looks like Celcom’s 30-month installment plan is something that is here to stay. You do pay less a month, but the difference of paying for an additional six months really do add up. The option is still there for those who prefer it.

On the price front, U Mobile and Digi are still the ones to go for. The former is especially the case if you’re not a fan of instalments for the device.

For more information on what else each telco is offering, you can check out their Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra plans below. We’ll have the comparison for the two remaining models coming up next.

(Source: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile, Celcom. Image: Samsung Malaysia)

The post Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra Telco Price Comparison: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile And Celcom appeared first on Lowyat.NET.

With the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra telco comparisons done, we now move on to the other two devices. As with the Ultra, the base and Plus devices have only one storage configurations being made available via the major local telcos.

Maxis

As with the Ultra, Maxis is offering both the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus in both normal and Zerolution contracts. Here the Postpaid Share 48 plan is also a thing for the Zerolution plans.

If you don’t need as much data per month, then perhaps the Postpaid Share 48 Zerolution plan is something to consider. Beyond that, everything else is as you’d expect.

Digi

You’ll notice that the base Samsung Galaxy S21 has an additional option in the form of the Postpaid 80 with GBoost here. This on is exclusive to the base model, which makes it even more affordable if you want to pick it up.

For the Plus model, things are pretty much the same as with the Ultra, save for the device price. Which is to say you’ll only get three plan options for it.

U Mobile

Nothing new on the U Mobile side of things. The telco is still offering both devices with two plans, and with the same options of normal or UPackage contract.

It goes without saying that this is still the telco to look for if you only care about getting the devices at the lowest possible price.

Celcom

Like with the Ultra, Celcom is the only one to offer 30-month contracts with the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus. This may be an option that’s here to stay.

But if that’s not your thing, then the normal contract is still an option.

With the Ultra, the most affordable option still saw the cost of ownership at the end of the contract period go over RM6000. If you don’t need that model specifically, the other options, you can get the base model which starts just under RM5000.

And that’s a wrap for the Samsung Galaxy S21 series of devices as offered by the four major local telcos. For more information, you can check out the links to the respective telco’s page below.

(Source: Maxis, Digi, U Mobile, Celcom)

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In the latest Malaysian market insight released by Opensignal, Celcom and Maxis apparently have obtained higher user gain rate than other telcos during the first round of the Movement Control Order (MCO) implementation last year. The comparison is made using the data that the network analytical company has observed from 1 January 2019 up till 31 December 2020.

While the exact figures were not revealed in the report, Opensignal has released a chart that represented the user gain rate for five major telcos in Malaysia as well as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and regional operators during the said period:

As you can see from the chart, Celcom and Maxis were on the upwards trend since the start of MCO 1 in March 2020 which went on until the end of the year. This also applies to MVNOs although the gain rate was not as obvious as the two telcos.

On another hand, unifi also saw some gain at the start of MCO 1 in March but users began slipping away sometime before June 2020. Speaking about users slipping away, the chart showed that U Mobile had lost more than 2% of its customers from March to December 2020 while Digi is experiencing steady decline way before the pandemic started but still not as bad as U Mobile.

By comparing users’ state of connectivity one month before they switched to another operator against the general experience of their original telco, Opensignal concludes that unsatisfactory network experience is likely the main reason behind consumer behaviour during MCO 1. This doesn’t come as a surprise and the same goes for the company’s recommendation to telcos out there: improve your service or you will continue to lose customers.

(Source: Opensignal.)

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