[UPDATED] Hotlink Prepaid Unlimited is misleading, here’s the FUP limit

[ UPDATE 7/06/2020 17:00 ]: Maxis has responded and below is their official statement:

Our unlimited Internet with Fair Usage Policy (FUP) ensures that all our customers enjoy a good internet experience on our network. The FUP limit varies for each Internet pass – 5GB for daily pass, 15GB for weekly pass and 50GB for monthly passes for high speed internet – based on current usage trends.

Meanwhile, there is no limit of quota for surfing on reduced speeds. The truly unlimited proposition therefore does not change, and the reduced speed still allows for a good user experience for video streaming on standard definition, social media apps and internet browsing.

[ UPDATE 7/06/2020 09:00 ]: Hotlink has updated its FAQ to include Fair Usage Policy limit for its Prepaid Unlimited passes.

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Hotlink Prepaid Unlimited is the latest offering in the market to offer unlimited internet and calls from as little as RM35/month. It was recently discovered that Hotlink’s truly unlimited plan does come with data cap of 5GB per day. As mentioned before, this is misleading for consumers as Maxis advertises that it provides truly unlimited internet.

As mentioned previously, Hotlink does state in T&C that its unlimited internet passes are subject to Maxis’ Fair Use Policy (FUP). However, it never mentioned any quota limits for its FUP.

When people asked Hotlink about the unlimited plan’s FUP, they gave a generic reply that they do not cap the quota as it is truly unlimited.

As more people are scrutinising Hotlink’s 5GB data cap, eventually, Hotlink started to acknowledge the existence of a FUP limit. The social media representative that handles the Hotlink Facebook page revealed that the FUP limit varies for each internet pass.

According to Hotlink, the unlimited daily pass which costs RM3 for 24 hours has a 5GB FUP limit and the unlimited weekly pass that costs RM12 has a limit of 15GB. Meanwhile, the monthly pass which costs RM35 for 3Mbps and RM45 for 6Mbps has a monthly data limit of 50GB.

Once you’ve hit your FUP limit, your download speeds will be reduced to 512kbps. According to Hotlink, the throttled speed provides a fairly good user experience for standard definition video streaming, social media and internet browsing.

UPDATE: Maxis has included its FUP limits in its FAQ (Unlimited Internet Passes):

512kbps is actually pretty decent but honestly, Maxis should have been more transparent about the plan’s limitation. To claim that the plans are truly unlimited gives the impression that users can enjoy full speeds without any limit.

These type of deceptive tactics are the reason why consumers don’t trust telcos. Perhaps Maxis has forgotten that it has signed a pledge with the MCMC last year to uphold consumer protection.

The General Consumer Code also covers the area of advertising to avoid confusion among customers. The terms, conditions and contracts of telco services must be refined and communicated clearly to ensure consumer rights are protected.

Even if Hotlink advertised a 50GB plan with 3Mbps speed at RM35/month, it is still an attractive plan. With a throttled speed of 512kbps, that’s already way faster than most of its prepaid competitors.

We’ve reached out to Maxis on Friday evening and we have yet to receive an official response on the matter.

Thanks YK Wang for the tip!

[ SOURCE ]

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