Which one to subscribe to, Maxis Standard Plan or VP50?

This is a dedicated article for Junkie. It was meant to be a commentary response to Junkie but as I feel that his case can better be elaborated in a full article, so here it is. Hopefully it will benefit others who find themselves at the same junction as Junkie too.

There are a lot of assumptions made in this analysis as the information available is minimal, and if there are certain point of views that readers would like to challenge, please do so!
This was Mr. Junkie's comment from the Postpaid Comparison Article:

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First of all, thanks for the efforts. You did a good job in all the analysis. I truly enjoyed reading all of them (Yes, I read ALL the articles, he he)
Secondly, I'd like to seek your professional opinion. I'm currently on Maxis Postpaid Standard Plan.
Here are my usage pattern for the past 8 months:
Voice Call SMS
June 15.69 9.7
July 31.12 6.1
August 24.43 14.75
Sept 24.32 18.8
October 36.02 15.25
Nov 33.02 22.8
Dec 34.37 35.6
January 10.99 32

In brief, most of my calls and smses are/were to other Maxis users. My query is: Should I switch to Value Plus 50?

And, I have the intention to supp a line to a family member. It is wiser to supp under 'Standard Plan' or 'Value Plus 50'?
I'm real confused.
Please advise. Hoping to hear from you soon. Thank you in advance : )
Cheers
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So we are going to compare if a Standard Plan is better for Mr. Junkie or otherwise.
First let me lay the assumptions:
1) We shall consider that all calls are made from 7am to 7pm, that would make all calls under the Standard Plan is charged at 30sen/min. Why? Because Maxis charges 15sen for calls between 7pm to 7am under the Standard Plan (please refer Postpaid Comparison), and that would create long scenarios for our study should we include the condition.

Besides, 15sen is still higher than the 12sen stipulated under VP50 on-net calls.

2) We shall not include SMS comparison, as the rate between the two plans are identical.

3) We assume that Mr. Junkie did not include the RM30 Standard Plan access charge in his table.

Let's do this.
Below summarizes Mr. Junkie's usage for the past 8 months:

The equivalent minutes are obtained by dividing his usage (RM) with the Standard Plan rate (RM/min).
Let's have a look at Mr. Junkie's expected bill:

In average, Mr. Junkie spends RM75.62 for his communication bill monthly for the past 8 months, althoug h his average usage is actually RM42.99. It's because of the RM30 access fee. From the usage minutes, we can compare what Mr. Junkie would have paid of he was under the Maxis VP50 Plan. The below table summarizes this:

This table compares if Mr Junkie makes all calls to on-net destinations @ within maxis destinations.

This table compares if Mr Junkie makes all calls to off-net destinations @ other than maxis.

Let us describe the columns of the table:
usage difference is obtained by [calls charged under standard plan] - [calls charged under VP50]. The column shows, even if Mr. Junkie makes all calls to non-Maxis destinations, he will still save under VP50 (of course, VP50 charges off-net calls 18sen/min compared to Standard's 30sen/min).

The usage is not the concern here, but the total bill here. With VP50 requires Mr. Junkie to commit RM50 per month compared with Standard's fix RM30 access fee, which one would cost Mr. Junkie more?

The 'Bill Difference' column is obtained by [Bill under Standard Plan] - [Bill under VP50].

If we look at VP50 usage, we may notice that Mr Junkie hardly use beyond RM50. For example in June, he actually used RM15.97, but under VP50, he would have to pay RM50 although his usage does not reach that much. But if we look how much he is billed under Standard, it would be surprising that Mr. Junkie actually would pay MORE than what he would be billed under VP50. This explains the positive values under the 'Bill Difference' column. Mr. Junkie would have saved between RM5 to RM50 if he would have used VP50.

MR. Junkie, based on this simple analysis, my persoal opinion suggests that it is better to go for a VP50. Maxis Standard Plan is the most expensive among the Low usage Plans on the market (as per the Postpaid Comparison article suggests), and it is better to go for a VP50.

Wow. After this comparison, I begin to think that the Operators may not be sincere at all with their Postpaid Low Usage Plans. After factoring the access fee, the bill may reach RM50 after all. So, it will be best to be under prepaid, or directly under a moderate usage postpaid plan. Unless if we plan to use the line to receive calls. RM30 will feel like a rent.

Disclaimer:
My view is an open suggestion. If there is inaccuracy in my reasonings, I implore readers to share their input.


Mr. Junkie, hope this helps!

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