Grid Mobile – New Telco Great for Frequent Travellers to Malaysia, But Only For a Year

Written by Cheryl Tan

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Seems like every month, there’s a new Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNOs) popping up and the latest one to join the market is Grid Mobile. In this saturated market, new players need to differentiate themselves to stand out.

First off, the base plan costs $24.90 a month, customers will get 20GB of data, 200 outgoing minutes, 200 SMSes, free incoming calls and caller ID. There are other add-ons available for data, call time, texts and data roaming.

To stand out from the rest of the MVNOs, Grid Mobile is offering extra perks – the addition of a second buddy SIM card for free, with 1GB of data per month, 25 SMSes and 25 minutes of calltime that can be used in a second phone. This is in addition to a free 1GB per month TravelRoam data for Malaysia.

There’s also an interesting feature to Grid Mobile’s plan where users can collect gridPoints to offset phone bills, or redeem rewards from partners like Chope, Grab, Lazada, Adidas, Klook, Shopee, Zalora and more.

It seems a little hard to rack up a large enough quantity of points to see a noticeable difference in your bill though; you only get 200 points on a user’s birthday, 50 points for each month a consumer stays subscribed to Grid Mobile and 50 points (with an additional 200 points per month for the first three months) for each friend referred.

There’s a catch though: This is all only available for the first 12 months of a new contract. Hidden in Grid Mobile’s FAQ page is a section that details additional costs after the initial 12 months.

The free buddy SIM will cost S$14.90 per month, the free 1GB a month roaming data in Malaysia will also cease after the first 12 months, and the cost of the base price will increase to S$29.90 per month.

This makes the plan rather unappealing due to the higher price point and lower data, text and call allowances compared to other MVNOs. But if you’re a user who is interested in the gridPoints system to get discounts with other vendors, Grid Mobile might just be the one for you.

More information about Grid Mobile is available on their website.