Best Mobile Plan For Heavy Data User – Comparison of Mobile and SIM-Only Plans In Singapore

If your mobile plan is due for a recontract, you might be wondering which Singapore telco is the best for your needs. Depending on what you want out of a plan, “best” can be very subjective. So we’ll be comparing a few scenarios.

Comparison of Contract Plans

Let’s start with a device and mobile plan that most people would be interested in. If you’re looking for the best plans, you’re stuck with the three main telcos; StarHub, Singtel and M1.

M1

Credit: M1

M1 has revamped their structure and gone with just one contract plan (S$30 per month) for 12GB of data, 100 minutes of talktime and 100 SMSes. Top up for more data, talktime and SMSes.

StarHub

Credit: StarHub

StarHub’s two year plans start from S$50 per month for 5GB of data and an additional 10GB free, for a total of 15GB, 100 minutes of talktime and no SMSes, but you get free data on weekends capped at 10GB per day.

Singtel

Credit: SingTel

Singtel’s Combo plans are ridiculous (starting at S$27.90 per month for only 100MB of data) so we’ll skip those and look at the XO plans instead. The cheapest plan goes for S$48 per month for 5GB of data, with an additional free 10GB for a total of 15GB, and 100 minutes of talktime and 100 SMSes.

If you’re a heavy data user, M1’s plan makes the most sense if you buy the S$20 top-up to make it a total of 17GB, 200 minutes and 200 SMSes. At S$50 this is on par with StarHub and just slightly higher than M1’s pricing, but beats both plans on data, talktime and SMSes offered.

Comparison of SIM-only Plans

Plans without a mobile phone bundled together is where all the other Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) come into play. Let’s just talk about the more notable plans available, since there’s way too many to cover in a single article.

giga!

Launched in May 2019, giga! is the newest player in the market to offer 25GB of data, 1000 minutes of talktime and 1000 SMSes for S$25 per month. This is one of the most generous plans if you like to chat on the phone and should be top of your list. Another perk, unused data can even be rolled over for two renewal cycles with a maximum cap of 50GB per month, so you won’t be wasting your unused data.

But hang on, M1’s sim-only plan beats out giga! For S$25 a month, you get 30GB of data, 1000 minutes of talktime and 1000 SMSes. There’s even free weekend data and unlimited music streaming on Spotify. 5GB of extra data is a lot, so for true heavy data users, this might be the best plan.

However, if you’re really tight on budget and not a heavy mobile user, there are other options available.

Circles.Life

First is the S$0 Circles.Life Flexi plan, offering 1GB of data, 30 minutes of talktime and 10 SMSes. Incoming calls count as part of the 30 minutes, so you might exhaust the talktime in a heartbeat if you make calls regularly. There are also top-ups available for more data, but that defeats the purpose of a S$0 plan. Also, there is a catch – a S$50 one-time registration fee.

So this might be a dealbreaker for those who are on a budget.

TPG

Credit: TPG

If you just need data and can live without calls or texts, then TPG might be an interesting option. Currently in beta testing, you’ll be able to get the first 12 months free (S$0) with unlimited data. There’s a caveat however; users only get the first 2GB of data each day at 4G speeds, with excess data usage capped at 1Mbps.

Although the plan only offers 20 minutes of call time and 20 SMSes, the main draw truly is free unlimited data for the first year. On the downside, TPG’s network currently doesn’t work underground, so there will definitely be dead zones in trains and underground malls. If you can get over that, TPG is the most worthwhile plan for data junkies. Even if you use 2GB a day,

that’s an average of 60GB a month for free!

Hopefully, this article will help you make a decision on which plan to go with! I am still currently locked into an expensive plan with StarHub, so I can’t wait for next year to roll around because I’m sure I can get a better plan as the competition heats up.