Maxis One Plan for East Malaysia
I actually caught wind of this information for the Maxis One Plan for East Malaysia from my East Malaysian colleague. This happened since our company decided to terminate their corporate line in favour of a mobile phone allowance system.
Now, the feedback from my East Malaysian colleagues is that Maxis coverage is no-where as great as it is in West Malaysia. So to be fair to our EM comrades, Maxis reduced the charges because of it. This is the same where in EM, road tax is cheaper because the road conditions are supposedly less developed than that of WM.

Observation
Service Call Centers

As this issue caught my attention, I did some research over the weekend and called up the big three, Maxis, Celcom and Digi about 2am on Saturday morning.

Calling Maxis Customer Careline at 2am was no problem at all. Within less than 2 minutes, I was speaking to a Customer Care Consultant who answered all my questions. Coming to think of it, there wasn’t a time that one call to Maxis couldn’t solve my problems. This, I have to acknowledge.

As for Celcom, I did call up their customer service line, but going through the automated operator didn’t get me to a Customer Care Consultant. However, I found the corporate number and that put me through to a Customer Care Consultant. I was slightly surprise because I expected them to transfer me to another department since I called the helpline meant for corporate. Nevertheless, the person I spoke to (Hafiz) managed to answer my questions perfectly.
Then there’s Digi. Digi’s helpline is virtually non-existent. Its more like a self-service helpline. The annoying part of Digi is that no matter what time you call them, let it be 2am or 2pm, you will be greeted by a standard message that all their customer care consultants are busy. Seriously? At 2am? After speaking to my other colleagues and friends, they told me they haven’t ever spoken to Digi’s customer care consultant eversince they owned a Digi postpaid. You’re talking about a 8-10 year Digi customer. This speaks for itself. One thing to note, more than 2 of my friends did complain on surprise charges on their bill during roaming. They claimed they were over charged and it took them a while to get their refund.
Coming from a sales background, I do value customer service a lot and is very important to me. Without a doubt, Maxis wins here.

One would argue, how often do you need to call them anyway? For me, this has always saved me a lot of time and hassle, and I value this a lot.
When I call to increase my credit limit with Maxis, it was done just like that, no questions asked.
Celcom on the other hand, didn’t work for my colleagues and I once our credit limit was exceeded once before. It took them 2 days to solve this problem.

So for me, this peace of mind is worth something. Question you have to ask yourself is this important to you?

Coverage
The reason why I carry 3 mobile numbers with me is exactly that. I travel frequently around Malaysia and abroad, and I can tell you, no service provider is perfect.

Maxis, Celcom and Digi are pretty much even in the Klang Valley. Although in dense populated areas like KLCC, Maxis and Celcom seem to be much more stable than Digi which I experienced call drops and slow data.

Celcom without a doubt has better overall coverage. Areas in East Coast and certain outskirts of East Malaysia, Celcom still has coverage whereas Maxis would not have stable connection. I believe this is why Maxis is charging a low rate for EM customers, and rightly so. Case in point: EM road tax is lower.


Roaming
If you move around a lot outside Malaysia, I always use my Maxis mobile. Why? Because Maxis is almost always cheaper than Digi and Celcom. I travel to Vietnam, Thailand, China, Turkey and US and generally, Maxis is cheaper and reliable.
Don’t believe me? Check it for yourself.

Devices
I use my iPad with Maxis. They offer Multi-SIM which Celcom or Digi can’t provide. Sure, you can have hotspot switched on your phone, but I rather not.

Conclusion
Based on all of this, Maxis views itself as a premium, customer oriented mobile service provider. And as such, they price their packages above the competition because of it. I believe their CAPEX is much more than others for equipment and service. Even for their apparatus assignment license by MCMC for Maxis is much higher than Digi's. (Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/business/busines...y-for-spectrum/ ).

Also worth noting, Open Signal's Study on 4G Networks

As a consumer, should you know this, you still have a right to choose with MNP.
Once you realize that not all the providers are the same, you must ask yourself, do you value the difference of Maxis over others, and how much more are you willing to pay?
Also, does this difference in service affect you? If you don’t travel and just want data on your phone and is just a money game to you, then yes, I agree, it makes sense to port away from Maxis.

Face it, Maxis will NEVER be as cheap as Celcom or Digi. They price themselves as premium, and rightly so.

You won't find Toyota sales person giving huge discounts out like a Proton or Korean car make sales person would, do you?
Why? Because they sell on their own based on user experience. And people pay a premium for that, just like Maxis.
Just ask yourself, are you willing to pay that premium?

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