Who wants a $50 discount and other goodies from M1? Ask me. I'll hook you up!

Okay, so you’re just going to state that I’m inherently biased towards M1 because I’m endorsing their BlackBerry packages, together with the $50 e-coupon. True, anyone would have said the same thing, until one is shown the numbers, that is.

I’ve put together a rough charts-of-sorts for a quick comparison between some plans that a “normal” person (yes, if you have 10-gazillion friends, this doesn’t apply for you – nor if you’re just the kinda guy who only SMS’es his pet goldfish).

Before you crunch numbers over M1, SingTel and StarHub, here are more assumptions I’m making:

1. You want a BlackBerry phone. BlackBerry phones are awesome, because every hot girl out there has one too – hence you really really need BlackBerry Internet Service
2. You’re a kiasu person, and want to save money (duh)
3. You want normal data so that you can connect your BlackBerry to your laptop and surf the net wherever you go (and watch Korean dramas in the MRT train, too)

That said, here goes everything:

	M1	SingTel	StarHub
Package	LiteSurf + BlackBerry VAS	BlackBerry Flexi Value Youth	SmartSurf 300 + BlackBerry Premium
Outgoing Talktime	250 minutes	200 minutes	300 minutes
Usage Blocks	Per second billing	Per MINUTE billing	Per second billing
SMS	500 SMS (Unlimited for Students / NSF)
Data Usage	12GB	12GB	12GB
Max. Data Cap	$30	No maximum cap	$36.38
BlackBerry Data	1GB	3GB	1GB
Perks	Multi-line Saver	Nothing apparent, really.	Multi-line Saver
Price	$68.93	$68.00	$77.90

 

It is quickly apparent that SingTel is the cheapest of all 3 telco’s in terms of $$$ – but let’s look at its value proposition in comparison to all StarHub and M1.

Outgoing Talktime

It’s apparent that even though SingTel is the cheapest of all 3, it offers very little talktime – being $0.93 cheaper than M1, SingTel has 50 (that’s F-I-F-T-Y) minutes less than M1. Are you willing to save that measly few cents and get FIFTY minutes less talktime? Come on, do your math!

StarHub has 50 minutes more than M1, but look at the sheer price. Almost 10 bucks more than everyone! (That’s 10.00 / 50 = $0.20 per minute.) Oh wait. So now you realise paying $0.20 per minute isn’t exactly a good deal? Good.

Usage Blocks

If your provider doesn’t bill you by the second, it sucks. Enough said.
(If I have to spell it out for you, it’s because nobody will end calls on the dot before the new minute begins, and you end up wasting ALOT of 1-minute blocks)

SMS

500 vs 500 vs 500. Takes a genius to realise it actually is the same number, hur?

Maximum Data Cap

Remember the horror stories about some guy accidentally leaving his computer to download stuff and incurring a $3843875.39 bill? Well, that’s what happens if you don’t have a maximum cap. Go look at the table above and figure which telco doesn’t have a data cap. DUH.

BlackBerry Data

You NEED BlackBerry Internet Service to actually use some features in the BlackBerry set you crave for. For example, Facebook and Twitter requires BIS. Oh, and yes, Browser, Maps, Mail, etc requires BIS too – but you probably only crave those cool stuff. OHHH YES. BBM TOO!

Perks

Being a self-declared cheapo, I always crave $$$ savings, especially when they are like 35% MONTHLY. Yea, did you know that M1 has this Multi-Line Saver thingy where if you combine lines with your friends, you get up to 35% discount for your monthly subscription? Bet you didn’t!

Now, eat that, SingTel!

Wait wait wait!

1 more thing: Did you know M1 gives you EXPENSIVE mobile phones for FREE too? You didn’t, did you? Check out their Take3 plan – you don’t have to pay a cent for phones anymore!

Oh, and yes, this comparison was in no way anti-competitive. As an owner of 1 SingTel line, 3 StarHub lines, and 2 M1 lines, well… I’m pretty much impartial

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