Maxis has quietly introduced a new faster speed option for its popular Hotlink Prepaid Unlimited Plan. Introduced last year with either a 3Mbps or 6Mbps speeds, there’s now a higher 18Mbps unlimited monthly pass which promises to offer 6x the speed and you still get unlimited calls to all networks.
To recap, Hotlink Prepaid Unlimited offers “unlimited” data and voice calls from as little as RM35/month. The base RM35/month plan comes with a 3Mbps speed cap. If you want to double the speed, you can add RM10 for the 6Mbps option which is priced at RM45/month.
As shown above, the new 18Mbps Unlimited Internet option costs RM60/month. If you’re eligible for the RM180 Jaringan Prihatin subsidy, you can save RM15 monthly for the first 12 months. From the looks of it, the 18Mbps Unlimited Prepaid plan has been in the market as early as 1st September 2021 but Maxis hasn’t made any announcement about the new plan.
Take note that the prepaid plan doesn’t come with hotspot data included. If you plan to use your data as a WiFi hotspot for your laptop or other devices, you can add RM5/month to enable unlimited hotspot usage. Take note that the validity, actual speed and FUP quota will follow your monthly pass option.
If you need faster uncapped speeds, you can purchase extra data quota from as little as RM1 for unlimited data for 1 hour. Alternatively, you can get 3GB for RM3 which is valid for 24 hours, or 5GB of high-speed data for RM10 that’s valid for one week.
Dreaded FUP still applies
As usual, the Hotlink Prepaid Unlimited plan is still tied with a Fair Use Policy (FUP) quota that’s hidden in the FAQ. For the monthly pass, your monthly data quota is limited to 50GB per month, while the weekly pass is capped at 15GB per month. Even the daily pass has a cap of 5GB/day. Once you’ve hit your limit, you can still use the internet but the speed will be throttled to 512kbps. 512kbps is 8x faster than the usual 64kbps offered for basic internet but it is still significantly slower than the advertised speed for unlimited usage.
Pay more for higher speed but you still get 50GB quota
If you compare this new 18Mbps option (RM60/month) with the 6Mbps plan (RM45/month), you’re paying RM15 just to get potentially faster speed but you are still restricted to the same 50GB FUP quota per month. Mobile speed is something that a telco can’t really guarantee as your actual experience depends on the network congestion in your area. On top of that, Maxis has the right to reduce your download speeds during certain hours “to ensure less data congestion to ensure a good user experience”.
Besides, 6Mbps should be enough for most users if they can consistently get 6Mbps on mobile data. According to YouTube, you can stream Full HD 1080p resolution with 5Mbps, while Netflix also recommends 5Mbps for HD streaming. If there’s already network congestion in your area and you can’t even get 6Mbps, getting a higher plan may not guarantee a better experience.
For more info, you can check out the Hotlink Prepaid page.
