Circles Asia will be a telco powered by M1’s virtual network operator network
A new telco will unveil itself as the ‘4th’ telco in Singapore but it is not MyRepublic.
Running on the virtual network operator network, Circles Asia will leverage on M1’s existing infrastructure. Although reports claimed that Circles Asia is the first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), this is not exactly correct as there were already two MVNO probably also running on M1’s network. One is 7-11 and the other Smart Pinoy. There was also the defunct Virgin Mobile which piggy back on Singtel almost a decade ago.
From what we gathered, Circles Asia will probably be the first MVNO to provide contractless Postpaid plans. In the past, MVNO are only limited to prepaid cards.
So will they shake up the market with more voice minutes or data bundle ?
Price plans
The basic plan is S$28 without contract. It has a 3GB data bundle and a 100 minutes of outgoing calls and free incoming calls. There is also free caller id and free auto roam. Additional data bundle can be customised every month end. It also has unlimited Whatsapp – voice and data for free (it is not deducted from your data bundled). Unfortunately the price plan doesn’t come with free incoming calls. Incoming and outgoing calls are charge S$0.08/min after the free minutes are used up.
If you require more data, you can add for S$6.00/GB/mth. Talktime can be increase by adding $4.00 for additional of 100mins. SMS can be added at $4.00/100SMS/month
Compared that to M1
mySIM+ 20 is at S$20 with 150 outgoing minutes, free incoming calls, 800 SMS and 3GB data
mySIM+ 30 is at S$30 with 300 outgoing minutes, free incoming calls and 1000 SMS and 4GB data bundled. Additional data of 1GB costs S$8.56/GB.
Both plans do not come with free caller id and auto roam. It has unlimited calls to 3 M1 numbers.
Note : Circles plan do not come with FREE INCOMING CALLS.
If you are those who use Whatsapp alot, the new plan by Circles Asia will definitely be more worthwhile as it also throws in free caller id which I think should be free (since prepaid has it free all the while).
So will you switch plans?