KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — While Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil is trying to find out why telcos are charging customers extra charges to access Digital Nasional Berhad’s 5G network, it appears that CelcomDigi will soon end its free 5G booster promo for higher-tier postpaid customers. As seen on the respective Celcom and Digi 5G pages, it seems that subscribers on Celcom Postpaid Mega 98 and Digi Postpaid 90 plans and above would have to fork out extra RM10/month in order to enjoy 5G after 2nd October 2023.

Back in June 2023, CelcomDigi introduced its introductory offer for its CelcomDigi 5G Booster passes which enable existing customers to enjoy 5G. At the time, the 5G Booster was listed for free for these plans (RM90 and above) while customers on lower monthly commitment plans would have to pay RM10/month for 5G booster which comes with an additional 30GB of data.

Free 5G Booster promotion for Postpaid Plans of RM90/month and above is ending soon

If we look at the latest table, there’s now a Booster price of RM10/month for 5G access only across all plans including the Celcom Mega 98 and Digi Postpaid 90 and above. If you need 5G access with extra data, users on Celcom Mega 98 and Digi Postpaid 90 and above, can pay RM10/month to get 90GB of extra data.

With the current promotional offer, the 5G access is still offered for free for these high-tier plans until 2nd October 2023. Meanwhile, the 5G Booster with extra data passes is typically priced at RM20/month for 20GB.

The same 5G access and 5G access with extra data promo is also offered for Digi Postpaid customers. This means if you’re on Digi Postpaid 90 and above, you still can get the 5G access for free (RRP: RM10/month) during the promotional period until 2nd October 2023. If you need to add more data along with your 5G access, it currently offers RM10/month which comes with 90GB of data.

In a way, CelcomDigi appears to be following Maxis where existing 4G postpaid plan customers can either pay RM10/month just for 5G access using their existing quota or pay RM11/month extra to get 2.5X data by switching to the new Postpaid plans with 5G. If you’re a heavy data user, it makes more economical sense to add more data since data consumption would be higher. Typically, video apps will switch to streaming at higher quality when your device is on a faster 5G connection.

For now, the promotional offer ends on 2nd October 2023. There’s also a possibility that CelcomDigi may continue to extend the free 5G access offer for high-tier postpaid plans as it did in the past few quarters.

No monthly option for CelcomDigi 5G Booster on Prepaid

Unfortunately, nothing much has changed for CelcomDigi’s 5G booster passes on prepaid. The 5G Booster passes are only offered with shorter daily and weekly validity options and this means you’ll have to spend even more to enjoy 5G for the full month on existing plans.

To recap, Celcom charges RM3/day for 5G and 4.5GB of extra data and RM6/day for 5G and 15GB of extra data. For long-term usage, there’s a RM12/week option which offers 5G access and 30GB of data.

On Digi, the extra data quota for its 5G Booster passes on Prepaid is slightly different. For the daily options, Digi charges RM3/day for 5G and 3GB of extra data and RM6/day for 5G and 7.5GB of extra data. Meanwhile, they also offer RM12/week which offers 5G and 15GB of extra data.

According to the fine print, the extra bonus quota is offered until 30th September 2023. 5G speeds on prepaid is also capped at 100Mbps.

If you don’t want to think about activating daily and weekly passes, CelcomDigi has recently introduced its new 5G prepaid plans which offer 35GB-45GB of 5G data with extra unlimited perks. The new Celcom Xpax Prepaid 5G and Digi Prepaid Next 5G are both priced at RM45/month and they come with 5G access included as standard. — SoyaCincau