Maxis has finally released its pricing and offer for the BlackBerry Curve 9300 (aka Curve 3G). Celcom had released their BlackBerry Curve 3G offers 2 days back while DiGi is still pathetically doing Registration of Interest.
The BlackBerry Curve 9300 itself retails at RM1299 and instead of slashing the device price cheaper, Maxis used a different way of bundling from the rest. For postpaid, the BlackBerry Curve is offered at RM1659 and it comes bundled with 12 months BIS Advanced subscription of RM360. For Hotlink Prepaid, it goes for RM1479 bundled with 6 months of BIS plan.
At first glance, it seems that Maxis is having an expensive deal but what you’ll get is cheaper BIS subscription for paying upfront. For instance, the postpaid offer comes with BIS Advanced which normally costs RM120/month. For this offer, you’re only paying RM360 for 12 months which is a total savings of RM1080. So with that subscription savings factored in, the BlackBerry Curve would cost a mere RM579.
For prepaid, it comes with 6 months BIS subscription which costs RM98/month. In this offer, 6 months subscription is bundled in for a mere RM180. So you’ll get a total savings of RM408 from this bundle, making the device costing RM1071 after savings. It is weird that Maxis mentions that the saving is worth RM480, this could be a typo by their web designer. Don’t worry Maxis, DiGi made a bigger mistake on their website during its reveal.
What’s even more weird is that Hotlink mentions the 6 months of BIS is FREE when it is actually charged on top of the retail price of RM1299. Looks like Hotlink and Maxis team are not in sync in terms of communication.
While Celcom gives cheaper device outright, Maxis gives you more savings off the normal subscription on the long run. The only con is that you would need to fork out extra upfront which isn’t a bad thing considering the amount you will be saving.
Another note worth mentioning is Hotlink is giving Free BIS access for first time blackberry users for 5 days. Check out Hotlink Blackberry page for more info.
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