Singapore cellcos spark mobile data price war; Singtel slashes prices, M1 follows suit

A price war has broken out in the Singapore mobile data market after M1 slashed its prices in the wake of a similar move by rival Singtel. Local news sources note that it is the first time in four years that the city-state’s cellcos have engaged in such aggressive pricing strategies, and comes at a time when domestic ISP MyRepublic is vying to become the fourth mobile network operator (MNO) and has unveiled its own low-cost strategy for the market. As reported in yesterday’s CommsUpdate, the would-be cellco has announced that it will offer a mobile broadband plan costing as little as SGD8 (USD5.79) per month for 2GB of data, should it become the fourth carrier. Singtel has now announced its new add-on plan DataX2 that gives new and re-subscribing customers the option of doubling their mobile data allowance when they top up SGD5.90 extra a month on a two-year combo mobile plan (i.e. from Combo 2 upwards). For example, a customer on a Combo 3 plan (SGD62.90 per month) with a 3GB cap can now double that limit to 6GB via DataX2 – making it a more attractive proposition when considering renewing. In response, M1 has launched a revised range of upsized contracts for new and existing users – i/Lite+, i/Reg. i/Reg+ and i/Max – offering a similar SGD5.90 bolt-on option with a sliding scale of additional data downloads. For example, its i/Lite+ option (SGD42 a month) boosts the standard 3GB data cap to 5GB for an additional SGD5.90, while the premium SGD102 plan upsizes the 7GB cap to 13GB for the same monthly cost.