Xpax’s Mix & Match plan is Celcom’s attempt to replicate Yoodo

Celcom has introduced its new Mix & Match prepaid plan for Xpax which will allow customers to customise their plans according to their lifestyle. The new plan is aimed at minimising wastage as customers can choose to purchase what they only need.

The monthly plans start at RM20 and customers will be able to choose the validity period, high-speed or unlimited internet and other add-ons for popular social media, video streaming and gaming apps. At first glance, the plan customisation experience looks somewhat similar to Yoodo where you can design your own plan by sliding how much data you need and add-ons you want.

Upon closer inspection, it seems that the plan options are fixed with several minor iterations to give the illusion of being “fully customisable”.

According to the Mix and Match FAQ, there are a total of three 5-day validity options and eight 30-day validity options. If you want unlimited data, the cheapest option starts from RM32/month and it comes with a speed cap of 3Mbps along with 60GB of FUP. Essentially, this is a watered-down version of the Xpax RM35 3Mbps unlimited plan but without the 3GB hotspot and unlimited calls.

[ UPDATE 20/07/2022 11:00 ] Celcom has removed the 4GB for RM20/month option from their table

For users that want high-speed data without speed caps, the cheapest option is 8GB of data for RM20/month and it goes all the way up to 30GB for RM32/month and 40GB for RM42/month. Another weird thing is that Celcom is offering 4GB data for RM20/month option which you should avoid.

As a comparison, Yoodo charges 2GB for RM12/month, 6GB for RM15/month and 10GB for RM18/month. With Yoodo’s ongoing promo, you can get 20GB for RM20/month which is one of the best value-for-money data plans at the moment.

After selecting your primary plan, Celcom allows you to complete your plan with the following add-on options:

• Unlimited Voice calls – RM3
• 5GB high-speed data – RM3
• 10GB high-speed data – RM5
• 20GB high-speed data – RM8
• 5GB hotspot – RM3
• 20GB hotspot – RM8

There’s also the option to add-on 10GB high-speed data for selected apps including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, iQiyi, YouTube, Netflix, Viu, PUBG and Mobile Legends. Celcom charge RM5 for 1 app, RM6 for 2 apps and RM8 for 3 apps.

[ UPDATE 20/07/2022 11:00 ] Despite giving the impression that both High-speed and Unlimited plans have the same add-on options, Celcom has clarified that the High-speed add-ons are only applicable to users who customise their plans with Unlimited Data. This is quite confusing and misleading to consumers that refer to their promo material above. If you’re a high-speed data user, this means you won’t be able to add 20GB of data for RM8.

Interestingly, the Xpax Mix & Match data add-on is cheaper than the primary plan itself. If you need more than 40GB of high-speed data per month, it is cheaper to go for the base 8GB (RM20/month) plan and then add-on 50GB of booster data (RM21), which gives a total of 58GB for RM41/month. Meanwhile, choosing 40GB in Step 1 on the customisation page would cost you RM42/month, which is not worth it.

It would be helpful if Celcom provided a customisation calculator on their website like Yoodo so that potential customers can get a better picture of how much they need to pay per month. In case you missed it, Celcom will need to divest its Yoodo brand within 18 months of merging with Digi as part of its agreed undertaking to address competition concerns. So it is no surprise that the blue telco is introducing a possible replacement.

While it is great to give consumers the power to choose, the Xpax Mix & Match plan look more complicated and it is funny that the cost of data for add-ons is cheaper than the primary plan itself. Typically, Yoodo offers cheaper data for its primary plans and it costs more to add boosters later on.

To learn more, you can check out Celcom’s Xpax prepaid page.