A new virtual mobile telco wants to challenge
the status quo by introducing an unlimited mobile data plan at
rock-bottom prices.
Starting today, Zero1 will be pre-registering customers
on its website for the $19-a-month plan that will be launched next
month.
This price is for the first 3,000 registrations. After
that, it will cost $29.99 a month. The plan comes with 200 minutes
of local talk time and 200 SMS messages.
Even at the higher price, it is one-third the current
market price.
Zero1 is the third virtual mobile telco to enter
Singapore after Circles.Life and Zero Mobile.
Virtual telcos do not build their own physical mobile
networks, but lease them wholesale from one of the existing telcos.
Zero1 leases from Singtel.
Zero1's chief executive officer Stuart Tan said the low
price requires it to manage the surfing speed of heavy users in a
way that will not slow down that of other users on the network.
Specifically, the download speed for high-definition
videos will be capped after the first 3GB of data allowance is
used. This limit, Mr Tan claimed, will not reduce the speed of many
other services including YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp calls.
Zero1 hopes to sign up 50,000 subscribers - about 1 per
cent of the post-paid market - in its first year of operation. It
plans to set itself apart from rivals by offering free voice
roaming via its Zero1 app, slated to be launched in June.
With the app, subscribers will be able to call and
receive calls from any Singapore mobile or landline number for free
while roaming overseas.
This is done using call-forwarding technology Mr Tan
developed, patented and launched early last year.
The technology is embedded in a device called Qongle,
sold for $199. It helps travellers avoid expensive roaming fees,
which ranges from 35 cents to $6 a minute depending on the
destination country, or inconvenient workarounds to reduce roaming
rates such as buying a SIM card in the destination country.
Qongle's technology is now embedded in Zero1's back-end
systems. Mobile data roaming rates will apply, but the rates will
be announced later.
In June, the firm will also launch tiered data plans
and value-added services such as music and live concert streaming
on virtual reality platforms.
Zero1, which received its operating licence from the
Infocomm Media Development Authority late last year, has raised a
few million dollars from private investors.
They include Zone Telecom, a telephony and networking
services firm that belongs to the Hong Kong-listed e-Kong Group
conglomerate.
TNP