S’pore Fourth Telco To Give Users Unlimited Free Roaming Data In M’sia & Indonesia

Let me see… about 6 more months until my Singtel contract is up.

It’s time for my bi-annual decision every time my 2-year contract finishes:

Do I re-contract and get a new phone along with it for a sweet price?

Or do I jump to a new telecom provider?

Due to convenience and laziness, I just always go with the former and get a new iPhone (because I’m a mindless Apple sheep).

However this time, I may really be forced to consider heavily.

Competition has been stirring up in Singapore after the oligopoly held by Singtel, Starhub, and M1 has been disturbed.

Circles.Life and MyRepublic have penetrated the market with insane deals with the past years and the market for the Big Three has taken a hit.

While they’re still maintaining their positions as the top dogs, another fierce underdog TPG is rattling the cage yet again.

Free Unlimited Roaming Data in M’sia & Indonesia

Having gained over 200,000 users via its one-year free trial program back in December 2018 after winning the license as the fourth Singapore telco in 2016, TPG Telecom is upping its game yet again.

Due to being top travel destinations for Singaporeans like me (coz it’s cheap and close), TPG is offering an extra benefit for its current users in the form of unlimited roaming data for free.

Sounds like a dream come true?

Starting in mid-July, the offer also allows for unlimited calls to Singapore phone numbers and free incoming calls and SMS.

Drawbacks? There has to be some…

Well, there aren’t actual major drawbacks.

But there are some limitations.

For example, calls to Singapore phone numbers have a limit of 20 minutes. But hey, who even calls for that long nowadays, especially when overseas?

SMS messages to local numbers are also limited to 20. Well, ever heard of WhatsApp and Telegram?

4G data usage is also capped at 2GB daily, after which the surfing speed will be reduced to 1Mbps for the rest of the day.

Should be fine, right? Unless you were planning on streaming and binge-watching Lucifer on Netflix all day long while getting massages (and fantasising Tom Ellis giving the massage) in JB. Sounds like a plan, eh, Detective?

Lastly, probably the biggest of all, it’s a SIM-only plan. No extra bonuses like a discounted iPhones or Huawei P30s.

Sounds like a marvellously tasty deal overall though, eh?

It’s unclear if this deal will be open to future users or only its current users, but if it’s the former, let’s just say the Big Three could be potentially losing a lot of customers.