The war for 4G LTE supremacy continues, this time it has spilled over to the prepaid sector as Maxis‘ Hotlink has introduced their latest plan, Hotlink FAST, which is supposedly designed for the 4G LTE Millennial user. Well, they certainly weren’t kidding when they said it was designed specifically for the 4G LTE user.
Hotlink FAST’s starter pack is priced at RM15 and it comes with RM5 preloaded airtime, 300MB preloaded high-speed Internet and offers users a choice of three internet passes. The first plan gives users a 2GB quota for 30 days, then the second plan doubles that up to 4GB and finally the third plan is sort of a “lite” version where it gives users 500MB for 7 days. Call rates are the same across all plans at 6sen/30sec to your ACTIV10 (10 Hotlink/Maxis numbers) and 12sen/30sec to all local networks. SMS is rated at 1sen/SMS to your ACTIV10 contacts and 12sen/SMS to all local networks.
Users can also apply for an add-on of either 1GB (RM12), 500MB (RM8), or 300MB (RM5) that will last the duration of your quota cycle. On the website, it states that there will be “No credit drain” and that the “Internet will stop its service once the FAST Internet pass expires.” However, Hotlink informs us that one the quota has been finished, you can still surf the Internet, but at a throttled speed of 64kbps.
They explained that although the quota was split between 4G LTE and non-4G LTE speeds, once a user depletes their designated 4G quota, they can continue surfing at 4G speeds but this time it will draw from their “All Networks” quota instead. Unfortunately, the inverse is not true. This means that if you were in a location without 4G LTE coverage, you can only use the “All Networks” quota, which is half of what you are actually paying for.
Now we understand that to create a “competitive” plan, compromises have to be made, but surely this doesn’t make any sense. Why would Hotlink want to segregate quota by network type? This just seems like a major inconvenience to the consumer.
Perhaps this is a testament to how confident Maxis is in their 4G LTE coverage, but even that seems like a stretch to try and justify their actions. In any case the plans themselves, if you ignore the split quota, is quite reasonable. So, if you have faith in Maxis’ network coverage and would like to sign up for this plan, existing Hotlink users can do so via the Hotlink RED app by going to ‘My Account’ and selecting ‘Change’ next to ‘Rateplan’. Alternatively they can dial *100*6*1# from their mobile devices.
Non-Hotlink members can simply proceed to the nearest Hotlink Dealer or Maxis Centre. For more information, head on over to their website.
