Select your best iPhone 3GS 32GB plan…

Telco war

Peace is disrupted yesterday when all 3 telcos are selling iPhone. OCWORKBENCH is the first in Singapore to report live on the iPhone war with a nice chart breaking down the various plans offered by the 3 telcos. If you follow their twitter, you can be updated on last minute surprises offered by M1 and Starhub to sweeten their offerings. Many Singaporeans are queuing up to get their iPhone because monkeys see, monkeys do (as they said in the army). If you are one of them, do you know what plan is suitable for yourself? Or you just sign the cheapest plan to get your dream iPhone?

Factors to consider

I have earlier blogged on some concerns before you upgrade your phone or plan. Perhaps it is good for you to read it before you run down to queue up. It is important that you are sure that you NEED a iPhone before you read further on the plans offered. Many claimed that marketing department in Apple is doing a great job in pushing you a product that you don't need. So don't jump on it if you only make voice calls and send SMSs. It is trendy to carry the latest model 3GS but you look stupid if you have no applications using the data plan. Yes, all iPhone plans come with minimum 12 GB of data plan which is great if you use GPS, MSN, Email, Surf web, Twitter, Internet radio, YouTube, Facebook and watch internet TV. 12GB is a lot of data and most users are unlikely to exceed this quota in a month. Thus, we will not be considering data transfer in our tabulation.

I would like to introduce a term known as the total cost of ownership (TCO) in our evaluation. TCO includes the monthly subscription (voice and data) you are paying and the cost of the phone. It is only fair to compare different plans as there is an amount to pay for the price of the phone for different plans. Below is an example of the Singtel iPhone plan for 3GS 32GB.

iPhone 3GS 32GB		Lite		Value	Plus	Premium
Monthly Fees (S$)		39.00		55.99	95.00	204.99
Extra cost for phone (S$)		658.00		398.00	98.00	0.00
TCO for 2 yrs contract (S$)		1,594.00		1,741.76	2,378.00	4,919.76

After you confirm iPhone is suitable for you, you should consider how many calls you make a month because this is one of the determining factor in various plans. If you are a light user, a 100 minute/month plan may be suitable for you. If you are a heavy user, you should consider the unlimited plan. It may be a good time to take out your mobile bills for the past year and calculate how many minutes you use per month. With this, let's begin to search the best plan for iPhone 3GS 32GB.

Value Plans (<300 minutes/month)

As the name suggests, this plan is suitable for consumer with a budget or makes only few calls. If you choose this plan and use more than 300 minutes, you will be paying a dear premium. So if you use 350 min/month, it is strong advised to select the next higher plan. Based on TCO on the plans offered by telco, the table is derived.

TCO	M-Value	M-Lite	ST-Lite	ST-Value	SH-100	SH-300
50	$ 1,522.00	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,594.00	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,580.00	$ 1,810.00
100	$ 1,522.00	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,594.00	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,580.00	$ 1,810.00
150	$ 1,714.60	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,786.60	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,772.60	$ 1,810.00
200	$ 1,907.20	$ 1,742.00	$ 1,979.20	$ 1,741.76	$ 1,965.20	$ 1,810.00
250	$ 2,099.80	$ 1,742.00	$ 2,171.80	$ 1,934.36	$ 2,157.80	$ 1,810.00
300	$ 2,292.40	$ 1,742.00	$ 2,364.40	$ 2,126.96	$ 2,350.40	$ 1,810.00

This above picture shows the TCO of the value plans. The lower the TCO, you pay lower. So with the min/mth value in the x-axis, move vertically up and the first line you touch is the best plan you should get.

From the graph, you should get M-Lite plan if you using an average of 250 minutes/month. Note that the TCO increases drastically if you exceed the voice minutes in your plan.

Premium Plans (>300 minutes/mth)

Next, we shall consider the premium plans which range from 450 to unlimited minutes/month. The following table is derived.

	M-Extreme	M-Unlimited	ST-Plus	ST-Premium	SH-700	SH-Unlimited
450	$ 2,450.00	$ 4,752.00	$ 2,378.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,460.00	$ 4,920.00
500	$ 2,450.00	$ 4,752.00	$ 2,378.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,460.00	$ 4,920.00
700	$ 2,450.00	$ 4,752.00	$ 3,148.40	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,460.00	$ 4,920.00
800	$ 2,835.20	$ 4,752.00	$ 3,533.60	$ 4,919.76	$ 2,845.20	$ 4,920.00
900	$ 3,220.40	$ 4,752.00	$ 3,918.80	$ 4,919.76	$ 3,230.40	$ 4,920.00
1000	$ 3,605.60	$ 4,752.00	$ 4,304.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 3,615.60	$ 4,920.00
1500	$ 5,531.60	$ 4,752.00	$ 6,230.00	$ 4,919.76	$ 5,541.60	$ 4,920.00

With the graph, we can see the TCO for such plan has a minimum of S$2,378. So you should be signing for either M-Extreme or SH-700 if you are using 800 minutes/month.

Limitations

There are limitations in this method which should be factored in. Different telcos offer different candies to sweeten the products. M1 has Take-3 plan, Starhub has free TV channels while Singtel has other plans with MIO bundling. This analysis only consider iPhone 3GS 32GB and not 3G 8GB and 3GS 16GB.

Conclusions

To assist you in selecting the plan, the table below will help you in selecting your plan. You will also be able to know your damage in owning a iPhone 3GS 32GB.

mins/mth	Lowest TCO	Plan
50	$ 1,522.00	M-Value
100	$ 1,522.00	M-Value
150	$ 1,714.60	M-Value
200	$ 1,741.76	ST-Value
250	$ 1,742.00	M-Lite
300	$ 1,742.00	M-Lite
450	$ 2,319.80	M-Lite
500	$ 2,378.00	ST-Plus
700	$ 2,450.00	M-Extreme
800	$ 2,835.20	M-Extreme
900	$ 3,220.40	M-Extreme
1000	$ 3,605.60	M-Extreme
1500	$ 4,752.00	M-Unlimited

Looking forward, I predict that with iPhone setting the precedence, data plan will be more affordable to the masses and Singaporeans will be able to try and apply applications in their daily life. After all, Singapore is a small island and well connected wirelessly. We should be able to surf internet while on the move. Having said that, prices will only get lower so I see that there is no need to rush and get a iPhone. Spend some time in reading this blog and understand your needs is better than getting a white elephant which will eventually pass down to your children or your parents when you are sick of this "hi-tech" toy. If election deserves one cooling off day, so do you.