Unlimited Madness II – Cost Analysis

8 comments Frugal Tips, Guest Post, Spending

Aug 28

Unlimited Madness II – Cost Analysis

How much does it cost to maintain a cellular phone nowadays? How about three? With the Unlimited Madness that the Philippines has already acclimatized to and accepted as normal, some people are in the habit of maintaining 3 lines in order to keep connected with everyone they love and know.

But as a consumer, is it really worth it, at all, to maintain 3 prepaid lines on an Unlimited service? Or is it actually better to just keep a plan and not worry about needing to remain connected to everyone?

Let’s see.

Phones

An old Nokia or Sony Ericsson model from China costs as low as Php 500 in China Phone stores. These models are called “recon” or reconditioned models. These have been manufactured in the Chinese factories that have been commissioned to produce Nokia Phones. For some reason, despite the fact that these are ancient phone models, they’ve kept producing them, just labeling them as “reconditioned.” Either way, these are very cheap phones and honestly, you get what you pay for.

On the other hand, you can opt for a China Phone Dual SIM, which is usually a knockoff of a Nokia phone. They can cost anywhere from Php 1,000 to Php 6,000, depending on the model. If it has WiFi and TV, expect to pay more.

There are also the licensed, mainstream Dual or Triple SIM phones from Cherry Mobile, Torque, and MyPhone. MyPhone was the pioneer in the Dual SIM phone industry, however, the quality of their units left much to be desired, thus, Cherry Mobile and Torque were able to take over the niche they left. They’re still in business, but aren’t as favored by the consumers as much as Cherry Mobile and Torque. These phones can set you back anywhere from Php 1300 to Php 6500.

Then the mainstream big-company phones, usually Single SIM, or, as in the case of LG and Samsung, some models are Dual SIM. These could take up anywhere from Php 1,500 up to Php 20,000+ of your budget. If you’re going for the iPhone, expect to pay at least Php 25,000.

Plans

There are different plans involved. Some plans are consumable, while some have free minutes. Let’s explore those that are closest to prepaid with Unlimited offers: the Unlimited plan offerings. But for comparison’s sake, we’ll also note the lowest consumable plans, and the standard plans with freebies.

Smart:

Entry-Level Promo Plan: Gold Lite 300 (No Free Phone)
Consumable Value.
Free Minutes: 0
Free SMS: 75

Call Rates:
Smart to Smart: Php 2.00 per minute
Smart to Other Networks: Php 7.64
SMS Rate: Php 1.02
IDD Rate: $0.40

These two other Smart Plans come with Free Phones, as well as a Loyalty Program wherein Smart gives the subscriber a new phone every 2 years.

Lowest Consumable Plan: Plan 500
Free Minutes: 0
Free SMS: 150

Call Rates:
Smart to Smart: Php 6.62 per minute
Smart to Other Networks: Php 7.64
SMS Rate: Php 1.02
IDD Rate: $0.40

Plan With Free Minutes And Texts: Plan 500
Free Minutes: 20 minutes
Free SMS: 500

Call Rates:
Smart to Smart: Php 6.11 per minute
Smart to Other Networks: Php 7.64
SMS Rate: Php 1.02
IDD Rate: $0.40

Unlimited Plan: Applicable Only To Smart Gold Lite Plans:

Php 500 – Calls Only, worth 30 days, billed on top of plan.
Php 60 – Texts Only, every 5 days, billed on top of plan.

So, in order to take advantage of Call and Text unlimited on a Smart Plan, you would have to pay:

Php 300 – Smart Gold Lite Monthly Service Fee
Php 500 – SmartTalk Unlimited Call Promo
Php 360 – SmartText Unlimited Texting Promo (Php 60 for every 5 days x 5 times of enrollment to cover 30 days in a month)

Unlimited Call and Text, including Plan Total: Php 1,160 a month
Unlimited Text, including Plan Total: Php 660

Smart Prepaid Version:

Unlimited Call and Text:

Php 500 – SmartTalk Unlimited Call Promo
Php 360 – SmartText Unlimited Texting Promo (Php 60 for every 5 days x 5 times of enrollment to cover 30 days in a month)
Php 50 – Allowance for maintenance load

Total: Php 910

OR

Php 360 – SmartText Unlimited Texting Promo (Php 60 for every 5 days x 5 times of enrollment to cover 30 days in a month)
Php 50 – Allowance for maintenance load

Total: Php 410

There is an offer that gives you free 20 minutes worth of Smart to Smart calls every time you enroll in the promo. It expires when your Unlimited promo expires, as well. In a month, that would give you 100 call minutes (20 x 5 times of re-enrollment in the unlimited texting promo).

Globe:

Lowest Consumable Plan: Globe Fully Loaded 299
Freebies (This Plan may choose only ONE option):

Free 10 minutes of calls and 200 SMS to Globe
Free 5 minutes of calls and 25 SMS to other networks
Free 20 minutes of IDD calls and 10 International SMS
Free Mobile Internet Surfing
Free Unlimited Calls and Texts to ONE Globe or Touch Mobile Number

Call Rates:
Globe to Globe: Php 6.00 per minute
Globe to Other Networks: Php 7.50
SMS Rate: Php 1.00
IDD Rate: $0.40

Unlimited Plans:

Unlimited Text (No Calls) Offer: Php 349
Calls are billed on top of plan.

Unlimited Calls and Texts: Php 599
Calls to other networks are billed on top of plan.

Globe Prepaid Version:

Globe UnliTXT: Php 80 for 5 days x 5 times of reloading to cover 30 days
Globe UnliTXT Monthly Cost: Php 450
(Covers the Php 50 extra for maintenance of the promo.)

Globe Super Unli: Php 150 for 7 Days x 4 weeks
Globe Super Unli Monthly Cost: Php 650
(Covers the Php 50 extra for maintenance of the promo.)

Sun Cellular:

Lowest Postpaid: Easy Line 250

Unlimited Sun to Sun Texting
Free Call Minutes: 600 minutes

Standard Postpaid Line: Plan 350

You may enroll your Plan 350 in either Unlimited Text or Unlimited Call and Text Offers:

Call & Text Unlimited

Unlimited Sun to Sun Calls & Texts
Free SMS to other Networks:  250
(No consumable calls to other networks. Calls to other networks are charged on top of Monthly Service Fee, up to the account’s credit limit.)

Text Unlimited

Unlimited Sun to Sun Texts
Free SMS to other Networks:  250
Consumable Amount: Php 200
(Consumable amount could be applied to for calls to other networks.)

Sun Cellular Prepaid Version:

Text Unlimited: Php 150 per 30 days, includes 240 Sun to Sun call minutes

Call and Text Unlimited: Php 450 per 30 days, includes Php 50 regular load

Thus, if you maintain 3 networks, you’ll be spending:

Unlimited Text Only/Postpaid:

Smart: Php 660
Globe: Php 349
Sun: Php 250

Total: Php 1259

Unlimited Call and Text/Postpaid:

Smart: Php 1160
Globe: Php 599
Sun: Php 350

Total: Php 2109


Unlimited Text Only/Prepaid:

Smart: Php 410
Globe: Php 450
Sun: Php 150

Total: Php 1010

Unlimited Call and Text/Prepaid:

Smart: Php 910
Globe: Php 650
Sun: Php 450

Total: Php 2010

By these figures, you can see that it is more frugal to actually go for the Unlimited Text Only options for Prepaid. After all, you do get free minutes with Sun, and Smart does have free minutes as well. However, in terms of best value for money and freebies, it would make sense to get a Sun Plan, but then keep your Globe and Smart lines text-only.

Personally, it is crucial for me to maintain a Smart prepaid account on unlimited text, because most of my contacts are on Smart. However, I do have a few friends on Globe, and their Immortal Text offer has been helpful. Immortal Text and Immortal Calls are no-expiry enrollments of your regular Globe load. Their previous “plans” were at Immortal 15: 50 Globe to Globe texts/5 minutes of calls per Php 15, and Immortal 20: 75 Globe to Globe texts/10 text to other networks. I only load their SUPER UNLI Php 25/24-hour Unlimited Call/Text offer, as needed.

So my personal set is:

Smart: Php 410
Globe: Php 250
Sun: Php 250

Total: 910

Globe is set at Php 250, because I had loaded only Php 150 last July 2, then enrolled the value on ImmortalTXT and ImmortalCALL subscriptions and I’m giving a generous estimate of needing to load it Php 25 a week for the 24/7 call and text unlimited offer. Now that the promo is gone, I may just load around the same amount, for the occasional text to Globe subscriber friends and loved ones. We’re not sure if there’ll ever be another offer like ImmortalTXT or ImmortalCALL, but I’m thinking about adding another Touch Mobile SIM to my growing collection of SIM Cards. This is because Touch Mobile has cheaper options, like the Php 5 SulitTXT, which is 25 text messages from TM to Globe, for only Php 5.

But then again, maybe it would be easier to just use regular prepaid load, since I’m not even texting a lot of people on Globe anyway. We’ll see.

So, to wrap up, in order to be able to text everyone you need to, across all three maddening networks, you may need to spend a minimum of Php 1,010 a month on Prepaid, or Php 1,259 on Postpaid. Not a lot of difference, actually. On one hand, if you’re looking to absorb the cost of your phone, it actually makes more sense to stay on the Postpaid, since you’ll get free phones every 2 years. While you can get free phones on Globe’s Text Unlimited Plan, and on Sun’s Plan 350, take note that you would have to get a Regular Smart Gold Plan, or its consumable version, for Smart. You cannot get a free phone for Smart Gold Lite.

Maybe the free handset every 2 years is worth it. Maybe you have a thing for phone brands that are not on the phone lineups of either Smart, Sun or Globe. Maybe you’ll be content with just one plan on one network. Or just one single postpaid account on one network, because of the free texts or call minutes. Either way, we’ve given you how the bills look from a Postpaid or a Prepaid perspective, especially on the Unlimited Texting and Unlimited Call and Texting side. Now, it’s up to you to take a look and see which mobile network carrier, and which Unlimited plan or promo is best for you.

Photo Credits: Pinoy Tech Blog

For Part 1 of this article, click please: UNLIMITED MADNESS

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More On Saving On Phone Costs: How To Make Cheap Phone Calls and Lower Your Phone Bill

Little kid running around the Internets posing as a 26 year old Freelance Online Writer slash Virtual Assistant for Hire. She loves God, Theology, Technology, and Thinking Too Much. And don’t forget her boyfriend.

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  • http://frugalista.whats-hot.org/consumer-awareness/unlimited-madness/ Unlimited Madness » The Frugalista Wannabe

    [...] are, if you’re thinking about getting a plan or going for prepaid. For a detailed analysis, here is where I break it down if it’s actually worth it. The detailed analysis is in a monthly comparison, compared against monthly postpaid [...]

  • http://WarriorInScrubs.blogspot.com WarriorInScrubs

    Wow, this is a very well-thought-of presentation.

    Maintaining three different network subscriptions can indeed be very expensive.

    I have actually been seriously considering–for several weeks already–of chucking my Smart prepaid SIM and replace it with either a Sun EasyLine 400 or a Sun regular prepaid SIM.

    Smart’s unlimited call and text promos–specifically Smart Talk and Smart Talk Plus–aren’t really unlimited. They’re more like “conditional unlimited” or “unlimited with a catch.” Also, any attempt to avail of unlimited calls under those two promos has always been a test of patience for subscribers. There’s always that system-related “glitch” which prevents almost every subscriber to get their money’s worth from those promos.

    That’s why I want to leave Smart.

    However, doing so won’t be that easy because almost 90% of my contacts are Smart subscribers–especially here in Iloilo and the rest of Panay. I’m worried that if I texted my Smart friends, they won’t text me back as they don’t want to spend their “maintenance load,” which, almost always, is just P1.

    My other option would be to get a Sun SIM or postpaid line, but still maintain my Smart SIM to which my Smart friends could text me back. I’m thinking that I’d just load my Smart SIM for every two months or so, just to prevent deactivation.

    But I’m not sure yet. Siguro pag-iisipan ko pa nang mas maigi before I do anything. Haha.

  • http://tsada.ph paolo

    If I may add, unlimited data plans are also joining the band wagon with smartphones capable of going online, twitter, Facebook, and etc.

    Globe and Smart offer unlimited data in the same price point, Sun coming in a little cheaper

  • http://frugalista.whats-hot.org Lorie

    You’re right, Paolo, the new data plans are coming in, as well.

    I think it’s a little too pricey for the Philippine market though, though Globe’s plans look like they’re the cheapest of the lot, I distrust Globe a lot, so I’ll go for Sun’s plans, IF EVER, which I won’t.

    I’m a Prepaid girl, all the way, I realize. :)

  • http://frugalista.whats-hot.org Lorie

    Hi, Warrior In Scrubs. :)

    Thing is, I think all 3 networks are essential. And since, like you, Smart is indispensable to me, it’s a prepaid connection that I may never be able to do without.

    Globe is peripheral in my world. I cope with the costs by using a TM SIM as well. If only they’d bring back the Immortal TXT, it’d be better for all of us.

    As to Sun, I cannot love them enough. :D

    Their lines are so SULIT. Though in my lifestyle right now, my minutes barely get used, so Php 150 a month has been the best for me!

    Now for the bottom line, friends tend not to reply if you’re texting from another network eh. Diba it’s just easier to hit the Reply button? If you’re on another network and they hit reply and you eat up their Php 1.00 load, magagalit pa yan sila sayo. So better to have a SIM with the same network na lang. Hahaha!

    Such a crazy “Unlimited” country we live in. :D

    Here is Part 1, if you didn’t catch it: http://frugalista.whats-hot.org/consumer-awareness/unlimited-madness/

    Thanks for reading!

  • http://pinoyfrugalliving.com Alma

    Hi Lorie! I have been a postpaid user for more than 8 years (Globe), and I have realized how much money I have wasted for services I never really needed since I have a PC at home to connect to the internet. Prepaid service has certainly save me more money!

  • http://pinoyfrugalliving.com Alma

    When it comes to communication expenses, its really hard to weigh things down. What frustrates me are the grey areas that comes with postpaid plans. Ofcourse these companies would want us to believe we are saving more by going either postpaid or even prepaid.

    To me it all boils down to service.

  • http://warriorinscrubs.blogspot.com/ WarriorInScrubs

    @Lorie:

    I have found a cheaper alternative to be always connected to my Smart/TNT contacts: RED MOBILE.

    With Red Mobile, it only costs me 2 pesos per minute every time I call and 0.50 cents per text to any Smart/TNT number. That’s WITHOUT registering with any of their promos YET. Of course, if I do register, it’d mean all my calls and texts to Smart/TNT are free and unlimited.

    What I like about Red Mobile is–even if I’m registered with their unlimited promo for Smart/TNT–I don’t need to memorize and key in prefixes in order to call. I’d just dial the Smart/TNT number directly. I also get the same clear reception because, well, it’s powered by Smart.

    In fact, I hardly text my Smart/TNT contacts these past few days. I just call them. Why wouldn’t I? For only 4-6 pesos (2-3 minutes), I can already send everything across without delay. Also, I don’t feel the need these days to register with promos because the call and text rates are very cheap.

    And that’s using the NEW Red Mobile SIM. With the OLD Red Mobile SIMs, videocalls made to Smart numbers via 3G cost just like ordinary voice calls–2 pesos per minute also. OLD Red Mobile SIMs are still 3G-capable, so that’s why videocalls can be done. With the NEW ones, such feature has been removed.

  • Bisibasi1974

    how about using 3g? any ideas about the cost of using 3g under postpaid?

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