My suggestion is that Malaysian telcos abolish prepaid validity periods, meaning customers can use their services so long as they are in credit. Such systems already exist in other countries such as UK. It does not mean you can keep your number forever and never use it. There would need to be a minimum usage or top up requirement, otherwise line will be terminated/barred as usual. Promotions and subscriptions will still have expiry date.

There are several advantages:

1. Convenience.
-Use when you need to
-No more line barring or worse, terminated even you're in credit
-True pay-as-you-go system
-Easier for outstation people

2. Lower income users benefit. They spend less credit but had to top up regularly to keep line active. Is this actually fair?

3. No more complications
-Example: subscribing to an internet weekly pass today yet having your service cut off say 2 days later due to validity expiry even you already paid for a week of internet will disappear

4. Overall, telcos have been scared of this kind of offering will affect their revenue. I do not think the concern is well founded since each people still has their needs and usage. These people would top up in order to buy data, make a call and SMS etc, so this won't be an issue. Also, remember U Mobile's 3x validity? On the other hand, the lower income user will have the line barred and cannot use their credit unless they top up. These poorer users are deprived the service and will not reload until they have to or can afford to.

5. This is a chance for the telcos to offer something better, simpler and more convenient to their prepaid customers and a step forward in modernising the communication system in Malaysia.

Unless some telco did something revolutionary like what webe did with their unlimited data, I doubt we'll have it.

I support this, prepaid is very confusing and very frustrating to manage as you need to think about your validity and credit.

One cool thing I can think of is overdraft for credit. For example, what if we ran out of credit and need to make a emergency call or something, the telco could let us "overdraw" and limit it to a reasonable amount. They can charge us interest to encourage us to quickly top it back up, but they should turn it off by default and leave it as an option.

For the lower income groups, whether working or students, if your monthly budget is RM10 then you either survive on 10 active days per month or you blow most of your credit on buying validity (example, DG's RM8 for 30 days. A more equitable system would give 30 days validity whether you top up RM10 or RM30.

For those that can afford to commit to more monthly spend, the problem really lies in how complicated prepaid plans have become.

In the old school days when all we did was call and text, it was:

top up > use

Nowadays, the process is:

top up > buy a data and/or minutes subscription > use

Then you have two expiry dates to juggle, the credit expiry and the bundle expiry/renewal date. And those two dates come into conflict, giving rise to unnecessary complication and often unfairness.

So, it might be better if top up buys quota rather than time and credit. Then we are back to a simpler process of top up > use. And if we must have validity, and on a purely quota-based system I do not see the need, please let us have one date only.

Still on validity, the telcos blame their prepaid billing platform which is a huge investment and only changed every 10 years or so. I think what really needs to change is their business model and stop relying on this RM1/day top up to stay active model, which is well passed its use-by date.

And as today's poor student becomes tomorrow's successful business man, so the telco will benefit at the end of the day.

Some will say, oh just switch to postpaid... but prepaid has many benefits for both users and telcos. Long live prepaid. Only survival needs change and telcos need to get back their innovative spirit instead of just constantly tinkering with their same old plans.

This post has been edited by dgboy: Nov 17 2016, 09:41 PM

im still using old school digi prepaid sim..

still can use the one year validity...

This could be done by attaching a credit card. If your prepaid in credit, then your credit deducted... otherwise either your usage charged to credit card or an auto top up occurs that is charged to the card. The maximum credit card spend per month can be set by the user.

If this launched, expected the cost will be expensive in every single usage

validity? no worries

normally, payu expensive but bundles with expiry cheap..

light user pay more, regular or heavy user pay less

multiply by the usage, it balances out

ikr, the onexox rate

In my opinion, telco can launch a different sim plan for this kind of consumers.Example current Singtel Hicard plan. Once you top up $10, you'll enjoy 90 days validity and 10 days of free incoming call. The rest 80 days will still able to use the service as usual but you'll get charge for incoming call. This will maintain the profit for telco as well as benefit the consumers that less using the services（sorry for my bad English）

This post has been edited by jasontanky: Nov 17 2016, 10:37 PM

such thing will not work in Malaysia that how numbers get recycle after validity expire then grace period then termination.

prepaid is for ppl that do no want to commit. i keep alot vvvvip no for me is great imagine i bought a 01325555555 then i convert to prepaid using what u said no validity i can keep that number until i die.

when u reload let say rm30 your validity 1month data plan is also 30 days so whay the problem?

telco needs money to maintain the network if everyone dont pay they eventually close down

seems like u never use prepaid before when that happens u can request sos credit of most telco u get like rm3 and 3 days validity. it will be deducted on your next reload.

seems like if u run a telco company overnight close down boss.

most of this high usage isnt from malaysian but bangla and indon workers in malaysia. they reload to call home or just to have internet to surf facebook and chat. they are not like us can have wifi, go to mamak or register for postpaid.

if u notice digi doing many offer to call bangaldesh and indonesia free calls and sms because they reload much more than you and this people not everyone have a valid permit so end up they just use prepaid.

Are you even malaysian? Me as a malaysian uses data a lot. That's why so many telco offered much data

I've stated that telco can force user to topup according to minimum usage or so

That is why TS wrote:

It does not mean you can keep your number forever and never use it. There would need to be a minimum usage or top up requirement, otherwise line will be terminated/barred as usual.

You see, OneXOX just have a long² validity period. Once the validity has expired, you would start at basic again.

Data validity would remain, but account validity should be remove.

He said that this system does not mean that you can keep a number forever, did you even read what he wrote?



Fine, you are correct in your statement that you can purchase advance credit from Digi but if you say this would cause a telco to loose money I beg to differ. I said that a telco could charge interest. With that, a telco can earn money from that just like how your bank does when you overdraft. Plus, instead of typing in USSD code everytime, why not make it seamless, the user can choose the limit for themselves and while we are at it, why not market it and make it sound revolutionary

This post has been edited by jack2001: Nov 17 2016, 11:05 PM

abuden. unker ppl say prepaid unker. u so old as malaysian u dont have a postpaid line ah

i got company u mobile unlimited calls with 15gb data and 7gb video

yes 4g broadband 16gb and 8gb for 4g lte

unifi 30mbps

yes, this is the reason why the cost will be expensive. Since they no need to do a reload in a monthly basis so telco is trying hard to let them spend more money to let them to reload again and maintain their profit. This example can be seen in Singapore where the telco provide extremely long validity for each top up but charge for incoming call.

Sorry for being rude. My point is, there're still many people out there depend on prepaid. Think of students and elders

This post has been edited by kroul2: Nov 17 2016, 11:26 PM

Every people has their own usage. That means people would still spend their money, BUT depending their own usage.

I think the pricing can remain the same, subject to market forces. The point being emphasized is the convenience of usage.

For those that top up regularly, validity has not much relevance and their usage and spend gonna remain. Same those foreign workers calling home, I doubt they even look at their credit expiry date.

Whereas for those who cannot commit RM30 per month, there is more convenience and fairness.

There are plenty of committed Malaysian prepaid users. I never used anything else. For example, DG got 9 million prepaid customer, definitely not all foreign worker.

Thats why different prepaid sim pack should be launch for different users. In Australia Telstra, they had multiple types of prepaid sim packs to suit each ppl needs

For now I'm holding to my 2 years xpax validity plan. Will never ever let it go

Still, we hope you would support our quest for lifetime validity... the first ever 4-dimensional prepaid plan.

so means majority foreign workers using postpaid and most prepaid use by malaysian?

What are you trying to achieve here? My suggestion is to benefit Malaysians. I believe not everybody could use postpaid or prefer prepaid.

HOpe prepaid will follow webe. I don't mind to top up rm79 for unlimited data, call n sms.

in some countries like india and taiwan, credit balance on expired numbers can be refunded.

malaysian telcos are among the most profitable in the world. asking them to be more consumer oriented and risk reducing their profits will not be easy

wow till 2089

Agree. Even if the account has many topup, but isn't active over more than allowed passive duration, then all of the credit would gone.

See this. Even telco uses validity as a sell point for extra ca$h

How many VVVIP no. you keeping ? 01X ABB BBBB type ?

i got 10 to 20.

so much, u selling or persona/business use. anyway u skipped my question is it the range that I mentioned ?

OneXoX give free 28 month validity as selling point. Good for parking number

TS, even as a current postpaid user, I fully support your proposal.

However this proposal will only be possible through some forms of government policy as the big 4 has formed some sort of understanding not to provide long term validity anymore.

XoX and Tune does provide long term validity.

Why is there no any channel for users to give proposal to telcos?

E-Mail them directly lo. Each telcos got their own e-mail.

Wouldn't be effective lor. They wouldn't layan these suggestions.

Because it's not actually orang dalam telco that reads the emails and Facebook messages. Telcos hire some agency(or people) for CS.

Friendi is a good example. Any usage including making a call, sending SMS and using internet will reset your validity to 60 days. More info on friendimobile.my

My non smartphone number I am using friendi. Loving it. Plus someone here in lowyat selling the credit with 30% discount.

Prepaid is not really that convenient after all. Now a lot of new prepaid plan does not even come with 365 validity, minimumly, one needs to pay rm1 per day for one day validity. So miniumuly one month needs rm30 to maintain a prepaid no.

but prepaid needs to always top up and subscribe to a valid data plan all the time, and need to cautiously ensure does not exceed the quota, if it does exceed, the remaining credit can be easily wiped out due to the pay per use charge.

while postpaid, even u hit the quota for data, there is no extra charge just the speed is throttled.

Not all people can afford a postpaid service and think of some people who wants flexible plan like prepaid.

The cheapest postpaid plan is RM8.00 + GST. Come with free data and free voice call.

Aaah redone. Must be the data plans. But tell me. Is it easy for people to pay bills?
P/S: The possibility of more retail outlets is higher than redone agents

who selling this ?

Namikaze Naruto

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3488987/+340

freecall to no one use telco only.

mean reload rm10 pay rm7 ?

i actually compare the price for prepaid if maintain monthly like rm48, it is already more ex than celcom cheapest postpaid pan.

Just use xox with 28 month validity

not many telco charging ppu for data these days

most either block data access once your quota is exhausted (they want you to buy booster/data top up), or else allow to fall back on free basic data, which is equivalent to speed throttling

however, having two expiry dates to juggle - one for your credit and another for your data subscription - is a complication we could do without

big telco blame their billing platform for that, yet reality they are living in an old school thinking where topping up RM1/day to keep a prepaid number active is a form of line rental

which postpaid plan still have line rental rather than just buying monthly quotas?

Heh, my online calendar is littered with prepaid expiry reminders all over the place.

we have a service called postpaid that did exactly what u need

Postpaid too inflexible for my needs at the moment.

Think of this. What do students do when he / she meets a debt collector from telecommunications companies? Or receive a lawyer's letter? Is it worth it just because he only wants to pay what he wants and what he does not need?

You see, the postpaid plans are not so flexible. It only has a fixed quota. What if someone has more use than a typical month? Or, what if someone had little use in the other? Does he / she must pay a fixed price for a fixed quota that are not according to his usage? That's the reason why prepaid exist. Not necessarily someone that has the same usage each month. With prepaid, a person can pay according to use him to meet her needs without having an expensive bills at the end of the month which can be found in many cases of postpaid.

if u want cheap solution that keep your phone number, look for xox, redone or friendi

Cost per GByte too high with these...

I'm happy with Hotlink for my current needs. That is all. Just have a few other prepaids lying around "for testing purposes".

Tell me, why only MNVO instead of MNO? This does prove my point number 4, which is many telcos are afraid of being revenue affected.

looking at the expiry management, it is already a troublesome thing to deal with. especially if u happen to forget the expiry date.

postpaid has no such issue, in fact the cheapest available plan for postpaid can be as long as rm45 for celcom which is not too ex also.

See my reply about postpaid

My Celcom Xpax 2 years validity is expiring next month.. I wonder if their extended validity rm$30/year and RM$50/2 years is still on?

Such excuse is unacceptable.

Before expiry it reminds you! You can reload at most petrol station, 711, online banking or you can buy and keep reload coupon. Then it also gives u 30 to 60 grace period and if you still can forget means you do it intentionally.

If you don't pay your bill for postpaid within your credit limit you get barred too .

For prepaid the validity extend from your reload date while postpaid regardless barred or not you still have to pay even u leave the number barred you still need to pay for it

postpaid - no reminder needed.

postpaid - autopay via credit card.

Friend seems like you are new to postpaid . Anyway just a piece of advice I suggest do not use autopay on postpaid line because they might over charge you or if roaming might go beyond your credit limit then very hard to argue.

It's only recommended to use auto paid on fix monthly charges.

While on prepaid they can only be charge what you reload only.

No reminder is the most dangerous part especially on autopay by then too late.

Don't la so careless later complaint telco cheat you