By now, you’ve probably read about the Blackberry 8520 that is designed with prepaid customers in mind from this blog and/or elsewhere.

Although I’ve been talking pretty much exclusively about the offer from Xpax (advertorial ma..), we do something a little different today, lets put Xpax and the offer from Hotlink head to head for an very direct and simple comparison.

Xpax blackberry plan
rate plan for Xpax from here

First, from Xpax, there are two plans to choose from, and they are pretty simple.

  • Blackberry Social – RM 1/day (from 12.00am to 11.59pm) you get facebook, Myspace, instant messaging such as YM, Windows Live Messenger, BBM, Gtalk, ICQ, and more
  • Blackberry Advance – RM 2.5/day, you have everything the BB 8520 has to offer,  push mail, web browsing and any application that connects to the internet, including my favorite – Twitter.

So in short, it’s around RM 30 to RM 75 per month.

note: although branded “unlimited”, the data rate is capped at 1 GB per day, additional data usage subject to RM0.10/10kb. Source.

hotlink blackberry plan
rate plan for Hotlink from here

Now lets look at Hotlink’s offer. There are four plans in total, so a direct comparison gets slightly more tricky.

  • BIS Social – RM 28/month, services are similar to Xpax’s Blackberry Social, but data is capped at 100 MB
  • BIS Messaging – RM 28/month, with instant messaging and push mail only, data is capped at 100 MB
  • BIS Weekly Premium – RM 28/week, this is everything, similar to Xpax’s Blackberry Advance, data is capped at 50MB
  • BIS Premium – RM 98/month, data at 1.5GB

Data cap is for Hotlink as per the subscription period of either weekly or monthly, additional rate is at RM 0.01/1kb peak and RM 0.005/1kb off peak. Source (pdf).

Conclusion:

In terms of pricing, Xpax is clearly cheaper with RM 75-77.50 vs RM 98 per month for Advance/Premium plan, while Hotlink priced their Social plan slightly lower at RM 28 vs RM 30/31 per month.

Hotlink has the Push mail + Instant Messaging plan that Xpax lack (at RM 28/month)

However, the biggest difference in these two offering is at the data caps. Xpax’s quota is on at 1 GB per day while Hotlink’s cap varies from 100MB to 1.5GB per month is just a lot lower in comparison. If you’re a heavy user, this is quite clearly a cause for concern.

Rate Plan comparison – Xpax BB vs Hotlink BB with BB Curve 8520
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23 thoughts on “Rate Plan comparison – Xpax BB vs Hotlink BB with BB Curve 8520

  • October 22, 2009 at 11:10 pm
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    KY wanted to check does that RM1 include the BB messaging that you mentioned last time? Or we still need to get a data package to use it? Sorry ah, coz I can’t seem to find any info on both Maxis and Xpax site, so thinking of asking you since you mentioned it before.

    Reply
  • October 23, 2009 at 1:02 am
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    JD,
    I believe that include BBM (BlackBerry Messaging) 😀

    Reply
  • October 23, 2009 at 9:33 am
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    celcom = bbery and maxis =iPhone … i guess maxis is much focusing into iPhone sales than bberry.

    Reply
  • October 23, 2009 at 9:36 am
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    vialentino,
    I think that’s a fair observation

    Reply
  • October 23, 2009 at 1:30 pm
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    KY then currently are you using 2 operators? 1 for BBM and then another 1 for normal call?

    Reply
  • October 23, 2009 at 1:36 pm
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    JD,
    Ya I have 2 phones, BB with celcom and normal one with maxis

    Reply
  • October 25, 2009 at 12:41 am
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    yo KY, thanks for the post. i went to celcom that day and the guy didnt tell me about the RM1 per day thingy. so i was comparing the rm75 against hotlink’s rm28 and of course, there’s a whole lotta difference. 1 thing is, celcom’s BB is rm988 against hotlink’s rm899. bout rm100. still thinking if i wanna get this BB, the screen’s too small for my liking and i dunno if i am gonna be fond of the qwerty 🙂

    Reply
  • October 25, 2009 at 12:19 pm
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    Sue,
    Yaa the whole qwerty thing needs a little time to get used to. Now I can’t live without it 🙂

    Reply
  • October 25, 2009 at 2:02 pm
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    don’t think i’ll ever change to another brand.
    i guess they were right
    “once you gone black, you never go back”

    Reply
  • October 26, 2009 at 9:35 am
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    Does digi have any Black on BB plans?

    Reply
  • October 26, 2009 at 10:50 am
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    tai,
    Only for corporate customers now.

    Reply
  • October 30, 2009 at 6:46 pm
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    hey KY, the curve 8520 only supports EDGE right ? i heard EDGE is alot slower than 3g… how is the browsing speed with EDGE ? is it okay ? did u try loading heavy websites with alot of pictures? how fast does it loadS? thanks ya !

    Reply
  • October 31, 2009 at 6:45 pm
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    john,
    Yah 8520 is EDGE and not 3g, browsing speed really doesn’t differ all that much since mobile browsers don’t load that much data anyway, but if you tether to your laptop then it’ll suffer a bit. 🙂

    Reply
  • October 31, 2009 at 8:34 pm
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    thanks for your reply ky. is it really popular in malaysia ? im using iphone now in new zealand .. but if alot of msian uses BB then i might change to BB too .. to keep in touch .. haha.

    Reply
  • November 2, 2009 at 11:42 am
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    john,
    It’s getting more and more popular each day! 😀

    Reply
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  • November 3, 2009 at 6:25 pm
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    how about battery life ? all indonesians here uses BBbold and they BBM like 23hrs in a day .. they said the battery runs out fast if u BBM or tweet alot .. is it true ?

    Reply
  • November 3, 2009 at 7:17 pm
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    john,
    The battery life is ok, lasts about a day with heavy usage. But u can extend it by using less vibration mode n lowering screen brightness

    Reply
  • November 24, 2009 at 11:28 pm
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    digi came out with the plan? rm 599 for the phone, 59 per month for the unlimited access and 150 deposit. u think its a good deal? the offer is BBcurve 8520..

    Reply
  • November 24, 2009 at 11:48 pm
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    erica,
    Sounds like a good deal but make sure the coverage is good lo. 😀

    Reply
  • July 14, 2010 at 1:57 pm
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    “KY:

    October 25th, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    Sue,
    Yaa the whole qwerty thing needs a little time to get used to. Now I can’t live without it”
    Yeap! Agreed! now its awkward using a normal phone. LOL.

    Reply

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