8 Facts About Circles.Life Flexi Plan, a 1GB Plan That’s Apparently Really $0

Last Updated on 2020-02-17 , 7:52 pm

Circles.Life is known as many things: a telco in layman’s terms, an asshole in telcos’ terms and a data god in consumers’ terms. And now, the latest Circles.Life Flexi Plan has reinforced their position.

For as long as I can remember, the telco has been coming out with gimmicks the average person could only comprehend as ‘incomprehensible’.

Think insanely-priced data plans, whacky advertisements and more recently, literal money-giving vending machines.

Really, it makes you wonder what Circles.Life is smoking every single time.

But just when you thought that there was no way that the telco could surprise you anymore, it has done it again.

And this time, it’s something so far-fetched, so inane, so ludicrous you can’t help but admire their tenacity (and money they’re burning).

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Circles.Life’s all new…

$0 Flexi-Plan.

1. $0 Flexi WHAT?

If you’ve not been paying attention, Circles.Life is offering consumers a flexi-plan that comes at an exorbitant price of $0.

And for that price, Circles.Life will be giving consumers a free SIM card, free 1GB of mobile data, 30 minutes’ talk time and 10 SMS every month.

(OMG, 10 SMS, is that even enough!?)

(But btw, what’s an SMS?)

Yeah, you heard it right; all that for $0. Absolutely $0.

Are you getting it into your head? Because I’m not.

2. What’re they smoking?

When I spend a little too much on clothes, food or whatevernot, my mum will tell me, “Boy, money doesn’t fall from the sky. So don’t anyhow spend.”

In answer, I’ll point to the sky and tell her, “But Ma, it’s raining money. See.”

And indeed, Circles.Life does seem to be raining money with this latest gimmick… deal as we would call it. But it seems that the telco’s generosity also has its limit, as there’s actually a catch involved:

In order to keep their line, consumers would have to buy a service add-on once every three months.

Which isn’t exactly blackmail considering how you don’t exactly pay in the first place. Consider me sold.

3. What service add-on?

So… what service add-on am I talking about?

Well, for instance, the latest version of its CirclesCare app offers 30 minutes of talk time for $5 (the cheapest service add-on), a 1GB of mobile data add-on for $8 a month or a 2GB add-on for $12 a month.

Which still comes off as pretty cheap, considering the mathematical equations that come into play.

$0/month for 3 months.

$5/month for the 3 months after that = $15

$13 for the 3 months (inclusive of the $5) after that = $39

And $25 for the 3 months (inclusive of the $13) after that = $75

Which would mean that you will be forking out just $129. For an entire year with Circle.Life flexi plan, I must add.

That’s cheaper than the buffet you’ve had to have just for that Instagram shot.

4. Alternative

But wait, there’s actually another way to keep your line and freebies, and you don’t even have to fork out any money.

According to Circles.Life, consumers can keep it at $0 per month as long as they use it as a primary number.

It then added that proof was a requirement, and it can be obtained when consumers port over an existing mobile number or when they are given one-time passwords for online banking and shopping via the line (or Singpass for NS registration ;))

5. Termination

Circles.Life is also keen to remind the public that the line and its maintenance do come at a price to the telco. As such, should the line not be actively used, it might be terminated after three months.

Incidentally, this is actually similar to the industry practice for prepaid phone lines. An apt procedure to determine termination, by our books.

6. Purpose of Circles.Life Flexi Plan

Apart from being an obvious marketing gimmick (as it is always), what does the telco want to achieve from this seemingly too-good-to-be-true plan?

As it turns out, it might just be empowerment. And no, it’s not the villain type of empowerment you’re used to seeing in movies. Instead, I’m referring to the empowering of power, which Circles.Life co-founder Rameez Ansar elaborated upon.

“Technological evolution is reshaping the way businesses operate and the way people run their lives. That’s why we believe in empowering people by making digital access more available for everyone,” he said in a press release.

“For this reason, we released the Flexi Plan giving them access to the Internet with no strings attached.”

Now I’ve heard about the last three words many times…

But this is the first time a telco said it, and of its own will too.

7. Demographic

As you might’ve guessed, this plan is aimed at the elderly, and users who wish to get a line for their second mobile device. Because let’s face it; nobody, and I repeat nobody, isn’t going to survive on 1 GB a month.

Also, consumers aren’t required to sign a service contract, so I guess Rameez really isn’t kidding about the strings when he said that.

8. Circles.Life

If you’re new to Circles.Life and seriously having doubts about such a dodgy-sounding enterprise, don’t be.

Dubbed as a virtual telco, one which does not construct its own physical mobile networks but instead rents them wholesale from an existing telco, Circles.Life has been present for a couple of years, and does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon.

A colleague used Circles.Life and so far, she has not died (i.e. dying means lack of reception, which means lack of data).

Still fearing for your life? Then just get the Flexi-Plan for 3 months and not purchase any add-ons. Once the 3 months are up, your line will vanish into thin air, but at the very least you wouldn’t have needed to fork out a single cent.

A true empowerment with no strings attached, I must say.

On another note, the local telecom competition’s really heating up here, seeing how Circles.Life’s latest move comes a week after another MVNO, MyRepublic, entered the scene with two mobile plans to its existing customers and those who supported its failed bid to be Singapore’s fourth telco (failed to be telco so they become virtual telco).

Also, MyRepublic is offering an Uno plan which offers 1GB of mobile data, but at S$8 monthly. Apart from 1,000 minutes of talk time and 1,000 SMS messages, the company has also pinky swore to kill of bill shock by not charging users for exceeding the data limit.

Say what?

And it seems that Australia-based telco, TPG Telecom, wants a piece of the pie too.

Having prepared to be Singapore’s next top model- I mean full-fledged fourth telco (this is the one who successfully bid to be the fourth telco), TPG intends to target the elderly here with plans to offer 3GB of monthly data and unlimited local calls at no charge for the first 24 months.

What can I say?

As much as I feel for the existing telcos (Singtel, Starhub and M1) for having to contend with such obvious madmen, I feel more for my wallet. As such, all I can say is that…

Keep on fighting each other guys, and I hope to one day be able to browse the Internet to my heart’s content, without having to worry about my heart bursting at the end of the month.

And please, whoever you are, as long as you’re reading this, go be a virtual telco. With more competitors, I can finally stream Netflix in the train and not read articles in Goody Feed’s stupid app (which, by the way, you really should download)

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