M1 first telco to bring back paid unlimited data plans

SINGAPORE — In a move that analysts say is in response to an increasingly competitive market, M1 has become the first telco to bring back paid unlimited data plans, five years after they were phased out.

On Wednesday (Aug 30), M1 announced the launch of mySIM3 98, a new unlimited 4G mobile plan for S$98 a month, with a one-year contract. Customers can sign up for this new plan from today.

This follows on the heels of rival telco StarHub’s announcement that with its new mobile postpaid plans, it is offering free unlimited local data access every weekend, from 12am on Saturdays to 11.59pm on Sundays.

(Click to enlarge) M1 on Wednesday (Aug 30) four new data-centric SIM-only plans, of which, one offers unlimited data.

Responding to queries on whether it would also start offering unlimited plans, Singtel said: “We regularly enhance our product offerings to ensure that we provide excellent value for money — we have offered free mobile data on Sundays to our Singtel Circle customers since late 2015.”

Mobile virtual network operator Circles.Life, which has shaken things up in recent years by offering huge data bundles at affordable prices, also would not say if it has plans to offer unlimited data. 

Its current plans include S$20 for 20GB and S$48 for 26GB.

Mr Rameez Ansar, co-founder and director at Circles.Life, said: “We are fighting data deprivation and are happy that M1 and StarHub are joining the fight ... Unlimited data offerings are a great way to cater to the data-hungry — which will always be our objective.”

In a statement, M1 said it was looking to cater to consumers’ “growing data needs, for social networking and video and music streaming services on the move”.

“The plan offers freedom and certainty for heavy data users without worrying about additional charges. On the network aspect, we have invested in our network to ensure we can handle any increase in network traffic,” said an M1 spokesman.

Mr Justin Ang, head of product at StarHub, said: “Fuelled by more advanced phones and pixel-heavy content, Singapore consumers’ appetite for data continues to grow. With our new data-focused plans, we are enabling our customers to do more of what they love on their smartphones freely and at much faster speeds too.”

In 2012, telcos here started phasing out buffet-style unlimited data plans and lowering data caps for various plans. This followed a worldwide trend where telcos noted their increasingly congested networks, and pointed out the need to manage finite network resources.

Analysts said that increased competition was likely to have motivated the move by telcos to bring back unlimited data plans. 

Mr Clement Teo, principal analyst at research firm Ovum, said: “Now, telcos are no longer just paying lip service to customer centrality. So competition is driving it, due to the upcoming entry of the fourth telco, and players such as Circles.Life that is probably a precursor to actual competition from the full fourth telco.”

However, he questioned if the S$98 price point would be attractive enough to consumers. 

“Not that many people might take it up. It really depends on how people use data. It might make sense for those who run up bills of more than S$98 a month.”

Mr Avinash Sachdeva, industry principal of Digital Transformation Practice at Frost & Sullivan, noted that telcos here have seen declining mobile revenue in the last five quarters due to “intense” competition. 

“M1 with its high dependency on mobile services, declining ARPU (average revenue per user) and price sensitive customers, is the most vulnerable player. It seems to have offered these aggressive bundled plans to safeguard its position. 

“However, we may soon see other incumbents follow the same path and further intensify the competition,” he added.