The rebranding exercise for speakOUT in Malaysia has not only produced a new name (it was formerly known as SpeakOut Wireless) but a new corporate identity and 4 new packages as well. This pre-paid mobile wireless service (an MVN), by the Application Service Provider (ASP) Pavo Communications, offers multiple internet plans, various pay-as-you-go rates for data/voice/text, and even phone bundles. What’s even more interesting is its focus on youths and tourists, of which the latter get to experience probably one of the biggest data quota that is available now in Malaysia, and probably anywhere else on the planet.
At the launch, speakOUT delved into 3 of its offerings that it hopes will attract its intended audience in a big way. First of which is of course the basic speakOUT Prepaid pack. It has a retail price of RM 16, which gives it a preloaded talktime of RM 2 and 500 MB worth of data. This starter pack will be valid for 30 days from activation date, and after which users will need to top-up to use more. Below are the pay-per-use rates, voice & SMS plans, as well as mobile internet plans and boosters that users can choose from.
Moving now to the highlight of the day, the pack that got everyone excited is also the one that’s not meant for locals. This Tourist Prepaid pack comes with 100 GB of data and it costs only RM 50 (~US$ 12.50). Unfortunately, nothing this good ever lasts. The allocation only has a 7-day validity period, but what’s even worse is that the data allocation is a one time deal. After the first week, users will have to top up like everyone else, and subscribe to any of data plans that are available (that is, if a plan is needed). The Tourist Prepaid pack also offers a single pay-per-use rate for voice calls, and it applies to both local calls as well as to anywhere in the top 20 countries from around the world. The same one-rate approach has been applied to SMS too. These features really are a value-added offering for those who are on holidays here, but unfortunately I was unable to find out the names of those 20 countries. This is because speakOUT’s website still has plenty of broken links, and its social pages have all gone missing. Anyhow, here are the pay-per-use rates, the mobile internet plans, and boosters that are available for this pack:
Internet speeds for both speakOUT Prepaid and Tourist Prepaid packages will be throttled to 64 kbps once the quota has been reached, and users will need to subscribe to any of those Marks from the Booster plans to get back to normal speeds. Another point to note as well is that once Booster is activated, this data allocation is the one that will be used by default, and users will fall back to their original internet plans once Booster quota has been used up.
When asked whether the 500 MB allocation was enough for the target market, speakOUT representatives mentioned that it constantly engages with customers, especially students and youths at speakOUT’s mobile locations, and these are the people who have helped shape the current packages. The representatives added further that it’s these same customers that will be able to persuade speakOUT to extend the 100 GB allocation towards local users too in the future. I personally feel that it makes perfect sense to have a 100 GB allocation, or something along those lines, to first time smartphone users as they’d be using a lot more data to get their phones set up. We’ll just have to hope that service providers will be able to offer something like it.
Going back to the service provider, Pavo Communications operates speakOUT and uses Digi for its network infrastructure; this should enable speakOUT to have the same kind of coverage, and connection speeds as the telco. speakOUT customers will be able to purchase top-ups from e-pay, and 7-Eleven, where the latter‘s chain of convenience stores nationwide will also act as a marketing channel for speakOUT. There’s also another reload point, which I think is called ‘Spot’, but I’m still unable to find anything like that on the internet or even within speakOUT’s broken pages.For Q3, speakOUT is looking to expand its marketing and top-up channels to also include the Tesco chain, among others.
Apart from engaging consumers, speakOUT is also in discussion to bring together Malaysian mobile developers and startups to harness the potential of its telecommunication ecosystem as a platform. Together with Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), speakOUT will be focusing on these developments which will allow it to explore opportunities to market its mobile solutions. This growth for applications/solutions developers and speakOUT’s market expansion is expected to take the company to Singapore and Thailand too in the new future.
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