Here’s a bunch of notes for anyone interested in getting the iPhone4 with maxis – quite possibly just for my own reference rather than anyone else given the amount of traffic I receive.
A quick breakdown of my monthly approximate expenditure with maxis:
- Value 50 Plan (RM50) – RM0.15 average calls, RM0.10 average SMS – equivalent to about 400 minutes of calls or 500 SMS
- 3GB Data (RM88)
For a grand total of RM138 (not including supplementary lines).
Ideally, I’d like to get an iPhone4 while keeping my relative expenditure per month roughly the same… and since my data usage is far more consistent (not to mention closer to the limit) than my voice usage, I would logically opt for the iPhone/iValue rate plan with the data cap that is closest to my current usage of 3GB; i.e. the iValue4 plan which ends up costing RM375/month. This ends up being RM237 more than my current plan (while being unable to share airtime amongst all my lines which is kind of useful since I make a grand total of RM20 worth of calls on average a month). So, 2 year contract multiplied by RM237 is RM5688 – the total I would be paying for the iPhone4 (assuming pricing remains about the same; which is a fair assumption based on previous iPhone releases with maxis).Good thing I don’t have to pay anything extra for the phone since I opted for the most expensive and longest contract right?
My 2nd option is to go for the cheapest iValue 1 plan for RM100/month while also picking up the 3GB data package along with it (since living on 500MB/month is ridiculous) for a total of RM188/month. Not too shabby I suppose (I still can’t share airtime) since it’s only a RM50/month increase. This works out to a total of RM1200 increase over my normal expenditure over a 2 year period… BUT WAIT!!! I still need to fork out an additional RM1790 for the phone because I’m cheapskate and chose the cheapest plan!!! So the phone just became RM2990. Lovely!!!
For the heck of it, let’s compare this to UK… I bought an iPhone4 for my sister while I was there (and in the process nicking her old iPhone 3G). Her current plan is £35/month for 500 minutes calls, unlimited SMS, unlimited data. She managed to keep her current plan and pay a grand total of £109 for the iPhone4. This works out to RM545 of additional expenditure over what she normally spends despite signing a new 2 year contract. Her current plan is also interestingly not the cheapest available iPhone4 plan available over there.
Conclusion: We here in Malaysia are getting screwed over by everyone that has an SP (Service Provider) in their name. Telekom Malaysia goes without saying, but despite the open “last-mile” in the mobile telephony sector, it appears that we’re still getting the short end of the stick. Good thing Maxis calls their brand new iPhone (3G/3GS) plans “affordable” or we’d definitely be getting screwed over!!! Right? Right…?
So how much do YOU think the iPhone4 will cost here?