CirclesLife, the cheapest telco in Singapore with the most data?
So my Starhub mobile contract just ended. The first thing I did? I went to CirclesLife. While the 4th Telco in Singapore has been a highly talked about topic, most people do not know that there is actually a virtual operator run by Liberty Wireless. How this is done is that Liberty Wireless leases M1’s mobile network on a wholesale basis in order to provide their own coverage. In the USA, and even in Australia, virtual operators are a common place. By making use of reliable infrastructure, operators can provide unique offerings in order to target a niche market segment. In this case, CirclesLife is aiming straight for the younger generation who don’t need sms, and lots of data. Another appeal is that there is no mobile contracts! With the proliferation of affordable phones such as Xiaomi, it just makes sense! Starting at just $28/month for the base plan, you get 4GB of data and an additional 2GB if you port in a number. On top of that, there’s free caller ID. Comparatively, my previous Starhub plan was $42.90 a month for 3GB of data, and I had to pay $5.35 for caller ID. That’s a total of $48.25 per month. Now, with a 24 month Starhub plan, you could buy a mobile phone on contract. But how much does that actually cost you? Not taking into account the extra data, unmetered whatsapp, and ease of adding additional data when you are about to bust, Starhub would have cost you $1158. CirclesLife would have been $672. That is a differential of $486. Without a contract, the Samsung S7 Edge costs $1048 (as of 8th March 2017). On Starhub’s contract purchase, you get various price points. On my earlier example, you can get the phone at $548. That would be a savings of $500, vs a contract differential of $486. Thus, the 2 biggest factors to your decisions would be 1 -> Do you need a bigger data package? 2 -> What phone do you use? In my...
read more