Philip Khor

Rationale for Celcom’s iPhone Data allocation is quite puzzling!

celcom iphone data

I have quite shallow understanding of pricing in terms of Marketing but here are my thoughts:

For the i68 plan, why offer 800 MB of data when Digi and Maxis are offering 1GB?

Of the three comparison tables, it looks like the winner for the most CONFUSING table of information goes to Celcom!

Celcom appeals to a certain demographics, which is quite facinated when they’re presented with ALL the information. Ok, I might be overstereotyping here, but think about it. It is usually the manager and business people who love factsheets before they buy.

I’d say Maxis plans are the most cunning. Pinch penny users go for Digi naturally because of their lower numbers, but if you consider living out your entire 12 or 24 month contract with a carrier, it is neck-and-neck between Digi and Maxis. As a Digi user myself, I’d give Maxis a shot if I were to re-commit to another smartphone contract. Digi just plain suck. The network sucks — data is unavailable all the time.

Back to the original argument, why does Celcom offer 800 MB?

The answer (I speculate) is that … their demographics would think 800 MB is greater than 1 GB.

And guess what, people will ask this to their sales people when buying the phone “Eh, why Maxis one gee-bee, and Siau-com got 800 emm-bee?!” More opportunity for sales people to confuse, make a pitch and close the deal.

Smart move, Celcom. Hats off.

Links to iphone page: Celcom | Maxis | Digi

I was browsing through this forum post where people were complaining of Maxis’ infamous product BillShock(tm)!!

After you finish your 500 MB monthly quota, you will be charged RM 10 per megabyte under 10 year old rates (remember GPRS?) So confirm in no time you’ll touch your maximum RM 250/month on top of what you normally pay for your phone bills.

At Digi, they just throttle you to 128kbit/s which is usable for almost everything (except YouTube) and no extra charge.

To demonstrate this phenomena, check out my bills for the past 4 months!

Cost — Billing Date

- 78.41 12-10-2010
6.46     12-11-2010
- 1.74     12-12-2010
- 3.21     12-01-2011

It has all been in the negative. I’m on the iDigi 88 plan with super duper promotion with the iPhone bundle. There’s some roll-over credit remaining on Digi!

Shelling out my Calc.exe , if you assume it’s rm 88 for phone bill (+5% tax), my iPhone purchasing cost would be RM 1450 in zero installment plan.

I think I got an awesome deal. Back in my Sony Ericsson k850 days, I paid RM 88 for Data on top of a RM 50 commitment plan. And the iPhone experience has been quite awesome (sans the reception issues in certain areas)!

My Data usage for December was 2GB. Oct / Nov was just tipped over 1+GB. No BillShock for me!

On a sidenote, I am happy and overjoyed to have contributed to this statistic:

Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached a record 16.24 million, up 86 percent from the year-ago quarter

Hello Digi Broadband [updated]:

via Twitter

@DiGi_Telco Interested in your 3GB quota broadband promo. But 3GB/day seems low, finish in 11 hours at 700kbps. So how? http://bit.ly/aJxIH2

Speed 80 KBPS Quota 3,000,000 KB Seconds 37,500 Hours 10.42

Here is their response!

Sigh..

p/s UTS Chancellor

Very cleverly done.

Very very creative, Digi. Well done!

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Digi’s Weeave [link] is like the eBuddy of Social Networking. What it does is it stores your passwords to social networks on their servers, and with a single login, you have access to all your accounts. It’s a virtual keychain, kinda like Tweetdeck in a way. I applaud their efforts to consolidate the different social media out there.

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Update: The state of 4G [Ars Technica]

This is purely speculative. I notice the Digi Marketing guys are testing out the price-points people are willing to pay for a mobile phone. The Blackberry with a plan looks attractive. I went to their exhibition in Mid Valley, and glanced through the spec sheet. Nothing to shout about. The 9700 pales compared to the Gigahertz Snapdragon Android Google phone. Then again, Blackberry is used by President Obama woh, sure must be super secure and super awesome, right? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.

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It is official. It is coming!

via Twitter

w00ts. you asked for it & we listened. DiGi & iPhone = *sweet*. FMI @ www.digi.com.my/iphone 33 minutes ago via mobile web

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I am on Digi Postpaid. I’m loving it.

Let me highlight some issues with “other” operators and how they “rape” you month after month. Their favourite victims are people who lock in their credit card numbers for auto debit. The usually convince you to do that in exchange for a RM 10 rebate. Here are the top 3 things you should look out for in your phone bill.

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Ok, I’m now gonna act as if I know everything about advertising and TVCs. So please bear with me.

I just watched the Lenovo laptop ad

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=249247918041

I must give credit to the camera work. It was well shot and directed.

As for the concept, the voice overs. ALL RUBBISH! Looks like they took it out of an outdated Marketing textbook! I’m betting the director is a middle aged balding dude who just hired a freshie with textbook ideas.

An example of a good advertisement in my opinion is by

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sPvLRVrvC8

DIGI Telecommunications on their 3G service.

Easy to understand, clear message on what it’s all about and something we can relate to. Not some crazy story line about creativity and attempted collaboration! Pe-tuui!

BOTH are technology companies and it is really shocking how one can get it so wrong while the other hits the nail!

And if you want to be wow-ed, just check out Apple’s theme for all advertisements on their products. [at Apple.com of course]

SIB Couz Camp 2009 was held at El Sanctuary in Melaka over the past 3 days. Compared to other camps in which I’ve taken part in, this is by far miles ahead. You can imagine the shock (and poker face) I had when my friends told me it wasn’t the best Couz had to offer.

Instead of pointing the flaws of others, here are the top 10 things I liked about the trip to El Sanctuary.

10. The food was delicious. Seriously, one of the better camp food around. Although we did crave for Mc Donald’s on Day 1 itself! I went to great lengths to make it happen; unfortunately it was 20km from Senawang (nearest 24 hour branch) so they didn’t bother.

9. The games and activities were good. Despite lacking clear direction, instructions and purpose. We had fun.

8. My dorm mates were awesome. Having familiar faces helped. I think that each dorm should have someone senior with a cool head and common sense. This is important because 70% of the time we are spending with dorm mates throughout the camp. Again, it was the flip of a coin, as to who we sleep with. That’s the way the cookie crumbles!

7. I personally feel the attitude of the girls especially, were much of a more acceptable standard than that of previous camp experiences. Allow me to clarify. As we know, God created super awesome beings called girls. Contrary to Einstein, I believe God somewhat “played dice” and made different personality traits. I give Couz Camp a 80% pass “approval rating”.

6. Most guys were well behaved, and the leaders made sure the shy ones weren’t left out, while the outspoken ones didn’t steal the “show” all the time. Kudos on that.

5. Surprisingly, Wifi was available. I didn’t have to worry as I was on Digi’s Data Unlimited Plan! Furniture and Fittings were all in order, so points for that one.

4. Pastor Victor was awesome. Well delivered message presented in easy to digest “chunks”, something which is relevant and practical and most important of all, honest.

3. The campers and leaders were very sporting. That’s what I really like, because I’ve seen teh evil in some people’s eyes in pervious camps.

2. Jungle tracking at night, crossing a river getting our shoes wet on DAY 1, slipping a sleep hill and enjoying the company of great friends at IMATION. Whoa, indescribable.

1. I was truly blessed. Everything just clicked in place, right from the worship, to the games and activities, the fellowship, as well as the most important, the encounter and dwelling in God’s presence.

There’s another camp coming up, and I’ll see if the guys are up to it.

Right now, I have to snap back to reality and recaliberate my senses. In the words of a shrink, its like “Getting out of la-la land!”