It seems, U Mobile has taken the title the market and analysis have given the telco as the ‘disruptor’ in the mobile telephony in the country to a literal sense. Constantly looking to upend the competition and give customers plans worth taking note of, the youngest wireless telecommunication company is shaking things up in the prepaid sector once again with its new UMI 26 and UMI36 offerings.
Introduced quietly a week back, the new plan gives prepaid users even higher data packages for a commitment for as low RM26. Customers subscribing to the new UMI36 plan can get up to 15GB high speed 4G LTE data of which 7.5 GB can be used for video, the lower UMI26 provides 2.5 + 2.5GB. Both plans includes other add-ons mainly the Unlimited Music, App and Waze. A quick comparison with the other players does not show anyone coming close to the plan being introduced at the moment, however we can expect a reaction to this anytime soon. (Celcom will have an announcement on its new X Pax packages this week)
A highly volatile sector, the segment has been seeing constant movement with hundreds of thousands of prepaid users jumping operators every quarter, Celcom will attest to this losing over a million subscriber in 2017. Price sensitivity has been identified as the main factor and U Mobile is clearly taking advantage of this, giving consumers high data and internet packages at lower entry point. Even Digi, the master at the game is finding it difficult to keep up, its RM38 plan gives just 5GB with none of the bells and whistles. Maxis’ Hotlink has a better plan than Digi with 6GB at RM35 but fails to compare with what U Mobile is offering at this moment.
Barring the fact that U Mobile is still expanding its network strength and establishing a formidable wireless coverage, the telcos’ approach has given consumers affordable mobile phone connectivity that didnt exist before. Being the underdog we admire the tenacity and the disruption it has created to the extent of breaking the grip the ‘Big Three’ had on the industry. But don’t think for one second the game is over, we might witness further shake-ups this year, just like GE14 the tides are shifting.
