Well, I am no prepaid owner (until now). However, I do believe that there are quite a number of people who takes up the prepaid services in Malaysia, right?
So how much do we know about our prepaid services?
Is not knowing about it gonna help us, or hurt us?
I know that there is a saying that goes “What we don’t know, won’t hurt us” and I believe that is not good saying, as “what we do not know, may very well kill us”~!
So I began to question myself.
What services does my prepaid service provider provide to me?
How much am I charge for my calls?
How much is that SMS that I had just sent?
What did it cost me to surf the internet on my phone?
How could I check my usage?
How did I blow my clean out my top up in a matter of days?
Do I get Blackberry Internet Services from my service provider?
What is the benefit of me staying with my current service provider?
Don’t you ask yourself that? If you don’t, maybe you should~!
Well it is due time some warranted research about the services we are paying for right?
Now about the prepaid that I had recently acquired, well, I gotten myself Tune Talk Mobile Prepaid. After the initial research, what they had to offer was pretty straight and simple.
16 cents per minute for calls
5 cents per sms
And 5 cents per MB of data used (1MB = 1024KB)
I definitely thought that the price of 5 cents per MB was pretty good as even with my current service provider (postpaid), I am paying a good 1 cent per KB of data. That would be mean that if I were to use 1MB of data with my current service provider, I would be paying RM10.24 for 1MB of data as compared to Tune Talk which is only 5 cents per MB of data. To me, that makes a whole lot of difference.
Now what else do you look for in a prepaid service? Can’t think of any?
Well thats where Tune Talk took me by surprise with a few things to bear in mind.
Free RM100,000 Personal Accident Insurance Coverage underwritten by Etiqa~!
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The changing of numbers anytime I want~! (I did not change my number)
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And last but not least, flying with Air Asia using the Tune Talk points earned for every top up~!
And the beautiful thing about the Tune Talk points is that it would never expire~!
***
Those certainly got me sold to Tune Talk and therefore, decided to give Tune Talk a try.
After taking a look at the packaging, I tore it open like incredible hulk~! Luckily I did not tear the packaging.
At first, I thought that by just inserting the sim card into a phone, that I would be able to begin using the Tune Talk Mobile Prepaid, but boy was I soo sooooo wrong~!
Apparently, I had to either check the website online, or call their hotline to get details on how to register my inactive Tune Talk Mobile Prepaid. I kinda thought this is a little troublesome, especially for someone who needs a line at that moment of time.
So I decided to give the website a try at www.tunetalk.com
There is a live chat available at the site. And from here I was able to get in touch with Tune Talk customer service personnel and she informed me how I would need to send in a photocopy of my identity card and other details to Tune Talk via email.
Again, I feel very irritated but the complicated activating process. On top of that, I was informed that after sending the required information, my Tune Talk Prepaid would then be activate between 2 hours and 24 hours. Again, I was disappointed because I had gone more than 2 days without receiving any news that my line was activated (maybe because it was just before the Chinese New Year, and the staff took early leave).
So I decided to give the live chat another try to determine what went wrong. Of course I was ask to send in my information to them yet again. I can’t stop this aching feeling that they might have lost my information when I first sent to them. Of course, roughly 8 hours later, my line was finally activated.
HALLELUJAH~!
And so the testing begins~!
The calls to all network seems to be quite good at 16 cents per minute. And after every call, I would receive a check of the balance. Same goes for the SMS and the data usage.
Now I also made a call to China and I am very very please by the clarity of phone call and there was no lag in the conversation. What more, the calls were quite cheap~!
I was quite happy with the IDD call rates.
My main concern however is the data. I was far more keen on the data, and how much I would use.
So I was waiting for the configuration to be sent to my Sony Ericsson, K530i, where I put my Tune Talk sim card in, but even after requesting for the configuration a few times, and after a few days, I decided to have my Tune Talk sim in my Nokia E71 instead. After that, I received the configuration and I was good to go~!
Using the E71, I was quite limited as to which sites I would access. The most accessed site using the E71 is twitter. Of course I used it whenever I had the chance outside.
While I was having lunch.
While I was having dinner.
While I was at the mamak.
While I was out in the open waiting for a valentine day activity.
While waiting in a car.
While I was bored waiting for people.
While people were busy talking to each other and ignoring me.
Also while I was driving from one place to another (line did get disconnected, and have to start new connection).
I pretty much used it at quite a lot of places. And I have to say, I am satisfied with this service, though sometimes I get frustrated with it (it could be my phone), when it just won’t connect, and I have to close and start a new connection all over again (not sure whether this incur cost of 1MB block of data).
And to my surprise, my Garmin GPS on my phone actually consumes data when it starts up. I felt weird about this, but I am guessing this is a phone issue.
Even though I get charged for the certain times when my connection did not go through, I am still glad that it is way cheaper than when I used it on my current service provider who charges me for 10 cents for 10KB of data.
….. Overall …..
I felt that Tune Talk does provide wonderful rates and pretty decent line coverage (shared with Celcom network), but it is without its cons of hassle to register and activate the line. But I believe that every telco has their own pros and cons, but for Tune Talk Mobile Prepaid, only the initial part was a hassle, after that it is pretty much home free.
Overall, I would say it would be a great addition if you use data sparingly and wish to get connected to the internet for cheap~! Because that is how I see it would work for me. And at the same time I can collect points for my future flying plans too~!
Now enjoy a little comparison.
Or you can visit my Super Blogger companion Zizi for a more comprehensive comparison to all the prepaid service providers there are in Malaysia.
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