ookyo: 5 things you need to know

In case you missed it, there’s a new prepaid in town that’s called ookyo. It’s quite different from your usual prepaid plans in the market. To get you up to speed, here are 5 things you need to know.

You don’t top up like a normal prepaid

Unlike normal prepaid where you’ll need to top up and purchase an internet plan regularly, ookyo adopts a rather hybrid payment model. You can’t pay by cash and you’ll need to add your debit/credit card which ookyo will charge each month automatically. In way, it is like a prepaid plan with monthly auto-debit and it is quite similar to TuneTalk’s Vibe plans.

The benefit of this is that you won’t need to worry about topping up your account manually each month. If ookyo fails to charge your card, your line will go into an inactive grace period which gives you 50 days to renew before your line is terminated.

If you need more credit for phone calls/SMS, you can reload your ookyo wallet through the ookyo official app. Calls are charged at 15 sen per 30 secs while SMS cost you 15 sen each to all networks. There’s also a Voice & SMS bundle pack which gives you 1,000 minutes of voice calls and 1,000 SMS for RM8/month.

Two Unlimited Packs with 3GB Data

ookyo offers two unlimited internet pack options that would cost you RM30/month. Social Pack gives you unlimited internet access for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, and KakaoTalk. Meanwhile, the Entertainment Pack provides unlimited Spotify, Musical.ly, BIGO LIVE, Smule, Joox, 9GAG and Shazam.

Both plans also give you unlimited internet for WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat and Facebook Messenger. On top of that, it also comes with 3GB of high-speed data for other uses.

If you watch YouTube on this plan, it will utilise data from your 3GB quota. Alternatively, you can activate a YouTube add-on pack which gives you unlimited 3 hours streaming for RM8 or unlimited 1-hour usage for RM3.

There are other packs as well which gives you unlimited access to specific apps that’s valid until your next billing cycle. For example, you can add-on unlimited Joox, Facebook, Tumblr or Instagram at RM8/month each or unlimited Google Maps, Waze, FourSquare, Clash of Clans or Mobile Legends at RM3/month each.

If you just need more high-speed data, they offer 1GB for RM3/day or 500MB at RM2/hour. Unfortunately, there are no monthly data add-on options.

It only works on Android and VPN is required

For those using iOS, BlackBerry (non-Android) or Windows Phone, sorry you’re out of luck. ookyo only works for Android devices at the moment.

To enjoy ookyo’s unlimited internet access and its perks, you’ll need to install the ookyo app that’s only available on the Google Play Store. Once you’ve installed the app, it will setup a VPN on your phone which is needed to enjoy unlimited internet access. Take note that if VPN isn’t switched on, your usage will be utilising the monthly 3GB data bucket.

Free Google Play Credit with every spend.

Ookyo also has Google Play Rewards where they are giving back 10% of your total spend on ookyo in Google Play credits. If you spend RM100, you’ll get RM10 of free credit that you can use to buy paid apps and content on the store. You can also earn more by introducing your friends to ookyo via your referral code.

To redeem your credits, you would need to enable Direct Billing as your mode of payment on the Google Play Store. Your app purchases will utilise your rewards first. If it’s insufficient, it will deduct from your ookyo wallet.

It’s a fully digital sub-brand by Maxis

Ookyo is a new sub-brand under Maxis and it taps onto the same network that’s used by Maxis and Hotlink. Similar to webeUniFi, they are a digital-only platform where everything from purchasing a new SIM to customer service is done online. Their customer service operates 24/7 and they are accessible on the ookyo app and website. To subscribe, you’ll need to register your credit/debit card through MaxisPay.

While its unlimited proposition is something new, it only covers selected instant messaging apps and social networks. Unfortunately, there’s no free quota for video streaming services such as YouTube, Netflix or iflix in the RM30/plan. Even for YouTube, ookyo only offers time-based packs and it would be much better if they had quota based packs instead (e.g. RM1 for 1GB per day).

For those who wish to have more freedom over their data might find these bundled packs and individual add-ons too complicated to manage. You only get 3GB of flexible high-speed data each month and if you need more, they are only offering daily and hourly packs.

What do you think? Do you prefer free unlimited access to specific group of apps or would you rather get fixed monthly high-speed data that you can use for any application? Let us know in the comments below.

For more information, you can head over to ookyo’s website.