U Mobile’s new “other” postpaid plan

U Mobile today has introduced a series of postpaid plans that comes with free calls and SMS. While it looks like a voice + data postpaid plan, the header suggest that its a data plan that comes with free calls and SMS. So which came first – Data or Voice? We have to look into the offering to find out.

Earlier this year, U Mobile has introduced a range of postpaid plans with bundled data – U Lite, U Value, U Plus and U Premium. All 4 offer bundled calls, SMS and data between 3GB to 5GB. For this new offering, they have 3 plans – U28, U58 and U88 with 1GB, 2GB and 3GB respectively. What goes inside the plan gets a little bit weird.

For the U28 plan of RM28/month, you’ll get 1GB of data and 300 Free SMS to any number. The next plan U58 of RM58/month offers double the data at 2GB, but instead offers 300 minutes of Free calls to any network. For RM88/month, you’ll get 3GB of data and both Free 300 minutes calls and 300 SMS. Someone must have thought those that use 1GB would SMS more while 2GB users are more talkers than texters. There’s no mention what happens if you finished your mobile internet quota and we can’t find the FAQ for this plan.

In terms of value, the U28 is a better offering if you require 1GB of mobile internet and if you hardly make much calls. The closest alternative is U Mobile Unlimited Mobile Internet plan for prepaid which offers 100 minutes of calls, 30 Free SMS and 500MB of data for the same price of RM28/month. For U58, that’s recommended for those that need about 2GB of data and makes about 5 hours of calls a month but SMS is charged as additional. For U88, it struggles with U Lite plan which makes it harder to decide.

The logic behind these plans baffle us and if you want the best of both worlds, the normal Voice & Data plans would be a better choice. For those that just need a data plan from U Mobile, we recommend either MB40 that offers 2GB at RM40/month or MB68 with 5GB at RM68/month. No doubt the lower U28 and U58 is something different but you’ll need to study your calls and sms pattern when deciding if this is the plan for you.

U Mobile was supposed to make things simpler but somehow things just got complicated with these plans.

For more information, head over to U Mobile.