[VIDEO] Personal connectivity: A mobile migraine
PUBLISHED 14 MAY 2019
The digital age demands constant online connectivity in order to support daily activities. But some Malaysians aren't smart about the data that they use – with overpriced plans and spotty connections, are users even getting what they’re paying for?
In this episode of RUMIT, Idham Idris from Wealth Vantage Advisory walks us through the common pitfalls of mobile subscriptions, and why something as intangible as data can be expensive for consumers.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
JAZMIN SIEH | Presenter
So – the internet, am I right?
In this modern society, the internet has become a constant presence in our lives. Not just for content, current affairs, or even memes – but that if you go offline for just one second, something’s not right.
Whether it’s for work or not to have people worry about you, we need to be perpetually connected to the internet. Now, it’s an essential cost. But what if you’re broke?
[INTRO] Rumitlah…
“EPISODE #2: PERSONAL CONNECTIVITY”
IDHAM IDRIS | Director, Marketing & Comms., Wealth Vantage Advisory
You know that meme of that guy with the mathematical symbols floating around his face? That’s how it feels sometimes, you know?
[MUSIC]
IDHAM
Personal connectivity is extremely important. In this day and age, it’s already a necessity. Our dependency on social media apps, on banking, on doing commerce, like online shopping.
A lot of it came from the social media boom. When the ‘true’ smartphone was released around early 2010, that’s when you start to see people really use the potential of the internet. With personal sharing, through social media, using videos, talking to friends, playing games together – everything. I think for the past 10 years, it has exploded actually.
Because of the way that the industry has progressed, over the past 30 years – they’ve already built up the infrastructure, they’ve already hired the best people, and they’re paying high salaries for these people – so the operational cost is very very high. At one point, they were charging 20 sen per SMS.
To be frank, data is very, very cheap. That’s why, at one point, telcos actually shifted over to unlimited calls and unlimited SMS. SMS cost telcos practically nothing to send.
PRODUCER
Do they tell you that? Do they tell that to people?
IDHAM
Of course not! But the fact of the matter is, as consumers, we have the right to demand.
So, when you use prepaid data plans, it’s a plan that is provided by telcos on a pay-per-use basis, to put it simply. How much data that you need – you pay for it. How much calls that you need, or SMS that you need, you pay for it. From a financial point of view, with prepaid, you can really manage your cash flow well. So, if you’re just using maybe 1GB or 2GB of data a month, you can be paying very very little for data connectivity.
The attractive part of postpaid is the device. Getting that new phone, with the postpaid package, immediately it makes you feel like, “Oh, it’s something different!”. The thing is, you have to ask yourself – do I really need the handphone?
A lot of people mistakenly say, “Hey, I’ll be saving money!”. At the end of the day, it’s just like a normal purchase where you make monthly payments for. And when you make monthly payments, the scary part is it doesn’t hurt.
If you’re earning RM3,000 or RM4,000, maybe RM5,000 a month – a RM300 payment? That’s less than 10% of what you’re making. Bring it down to over a year, you that you’ve already spent over RM3,600. Did you really use it to it’s maximum potential? That’s the thing.
I think the most important thing for consumers in understanding their data packages is you have to maximise your usage. But in order to do that, you need to know how much you’re using.
Let’s say you use about 10GB a month. So with that 10GB a month, what other plans out there that can match? The clever part with prepaid is a lot of them only give you 5GB, so they want you to buy the extra data. Some telcos even charge you RM45 or RM50 for additional 5GB. And if you’re doing that every month, it’s RM600 a year.
The other way that you can do it is you track actually how much you spend. Let’s say you spend RM600 in six months. That’s RM100 per month. So, when you get that RM100, just match it with whatever data plans that is out there.
JAZMIN
Tetapi!
Malaysia is ranked among countries with one of the slowest internet speeds. Yet, on average, we have one of the highest data consumption rates globally. Are we being conned?
IDHAM
Every three or four months, the telcos are trying to provide more and more services. They’re always doing this song and dance. Some companies even advertise, “We’re the fastest out there.” But at the same time, if you’re in the place where you’re not getting the full network coverage, speeds can be really really really slow.
Slow internet is worse than no internet. For rural areas, it’s a matter of the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to make sure that they provide the full coverage. At the end of the day, you have to remember, telcos are a business. They have to answer to their shareholders, and also their profit margin.
You always have to ask, you know, what’s in it for them? We’re still at this point where there is no guarantee. A lot of ISPs, they like to use this term where it’s called ‘best effort’. Best effort means, “That’s the best that we can do at this point in time.”
IDHAM
The only way that you can measure it is, how does it work for you? First of all, are you getting the good network coverage where you use your phone the most? Number two, are you getting the speeds? And number three, are you getting the data that was promised to you?
These are some of the things that you have to troubleshoot yourself. You’ll have to make sure that you are getting it consistently. Are you getting it like, every hour? Is it happening to other people as well? Could it be a problem with your phone? If it’s still the same, then there’s a legitimate problem. So that’s the point where you need to ask yourself, “Is this the telco for me or not?”. The good thing in Malaysia, we have a very very competitive mobile market.
The thing is, with mobile phone providers, you really have to compare it to what you use it for, how much you think that you can afford, and really squeeze out as much as you can out of the plan that you are using. Have a strict budget if possible, on what you can spend on mobile connectivity. Because at the end of the day, even though it’s a – I would say a necessity in this day and age, there’s definitely certain things that you can reduce.
PRODUCER
Or just use WiFi, right?
IDHAM
[Laughs] Oh, that’s a whole other issue.
[END]
CREDITS
