Battle Loyal - Malaysia's Best 2017 Prepaid Plan Is...

Update 3 (as of 7 August, 2017): Article updated to reflect Hotlink's new SUPER prepaid plan. Celcom repackaged their Xpax Internet plans recently but the RM30 plan remains untouched.

Update 2 (as of 2 August, 2017): Article has been updated to cover Digi's slight tweak to the LiVE plan plus the bi-GB-onus promotion and Hotlink's Happy Hour.

Update 1: Article has been updated to reflect U Mobile's new UNLIMITED POWER prepaid plan.

U Mobile recently decided to up the ante by TRIPLING the data of their UMI plans and I decided to see how their POWER prepaid plan would stack up against the other telcos; namely Celcom's Xpax, Digi's LiVE and Maxis's Hotlink, by doing a comparison between them at the sweet RM30 per month commitment level which is not that expensive for most to purchase for the long-term.

Celcom's XPAX

XPAX retails for RM10 & comes pre-loaded with RM6

Without further ado, let us start with the recently refreshed XPAX #NoKelentong plan announced by Celcom on Dec 19, 2016. The differentiating feature of this plan is that it comes with 10GB of Facebook Internet and it should satisfy even the most hardcore FB addicts out there. 5GB of pure Internet is also the highest allocated after U Mobile's UMI promotion if you are not into streaming.

Digi Prepaid LiVE

LiVE retails for RM8 & comes pre-loaded with RM5

Prior to U Mobile's Music Onz introduction, if you are the type that streams music on-the-go, then Digi's prepaid LiVE is the plan for you. You will be given an additional 1GB of music data weekly to stream in addition to the 2GB music data from subscribing the Internet plan 2.5GB of music and video data weekly to stream and karaoke fans will rejoice that Smule is one of their partners.

Plan has been tweaked by increasing the High Speed Internet data from 3GB to 5GB sacrificing both 2GB of video and music streaming data previously. There is an on-going promo now where you can get 1GB of free data daily from 1-7pm (no usage time limit unlike Hotlink's Happy Hour).

Maxis's Hotlink SUPER

SUPER retails for RM10 & comes pre-loaded with RM5

Maxis's Hotlink FAST

FAST retails for RM10 & comes pre-loaded with RM5

Maxis's Hotlink FAST might look like it is pretty generous with its free weekly 2GB weekend data but closer inspection reveals that this promotion is only applicable if you are on 4G, bad news for those still using a non-4G phone or staying in places not covered by their vast 4G network. FAST video streaming data is also plentiful at 4GB but is solely limited to one partner, namely YouTube.

Hotlink introduced the Happy Hour offer in April 2017 where users can redeem 1GB of free data daily (total of 30GB monthly) from 7am-7pm but usage is limited within 1 hour upon redemption.

The new Super prepaid plan introduced the Larut Malam (LM) pass where users get 1GB of  free data daily (total of 30GB monthly) from 1am-9am just by staying active. While the free weekend data of 2GB promo is still present, users would need to accumulate RM15 of top-up EVERY week for it be activated under this plan (where 30 minutes of free IDD calls to Indonesia is also given).

U Mobile's UNLIMITED POWER

UNLIMITED POWER retails for RM8.50 & comes pre-loaded with RM5

U Mobile's POWER

POWER retails for RM8.50 & comes pre-loaded with RM5

As mentioned earlier in the article, U Mobile's current promotion of 3x the data of their Unlimited Mobile Internet (UMI) plans leads to a bumper 7.5GB of high-speed Internet. Music streaming is the main draw at the time of writing with unlimited quota being given to stream from 21 partners. They also have 24 video streaming partners, easily twice as much than their nearest competitor.

The new Unlimited Power prepaid plan introduced the App-Onz service where data usage on the following three (3) social media apps; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, are unlimited aka. FREE.

In terms of calling and SMS rate to other networks, U Mobile and Maxis have the cheapest at 14 24 cents per minute (others 30 cents per minute) and 8 12 cents per SMS (others 15-20 cents per SMS). Hence, the winner is clear as day if you are looking for the best prepaid plan unless you are living in a place with limited connectivity, which is a story for another day altogether.

P.S. Quota for basic Internet quota are ignored during comparison as all the plans provided them.