Dissecting Maxis' iPhone plans

Let me first explain the classification of iPhones.

First, there is the locked iPhone. Locked meaning that the iPhone is under contract with any mobile phone service provider, example At&t in the States. Meaning that you have to buy the phone along with the service. Your prepaid SIM cards won't work in these kinda phones.

Then, there is the officially unlocked iPhones. Meaning that you can buy the phone without the phone line, and your SIM card would work perfectly fine. This version of iPhone is released only in a few countries, such as Russia, Singapore, Czech Republic and few other countries.

Then there is the un-officially unlocked iPhones. These are actually locked iPhones, which are supposed to be under contract and could only recognize certain SIM cards. But after some manipulation using some hacking softwares, they are able to recognize your own SIM cards. I've bought a locked iPhone from USA and now i'm using my own SIM card after unlocking it.

NOTE:Just found out through a friend that the iphones sold in Malaysia are officially unlocked. But it is still under contract. You have to buy the phone along with the service provider, but after your contract has expired, you can throw away your maxis SIM card and use another SIM card without needing to unlock it using the software. Link here.

I bet most of you know the above mentioned stuff already.

Now to Maxis. They are offering 6 ,12 and 24 month plans. And there are 4 subplans or packages under each plan. Lowyat.net forum calculated the cost of these plans quite meticulously. I'm going to mention a few only.

For a 6 month plan, an 8gb iphone costs RM2540 and a 16gb iphone costs RM2960. The cheapest subplan is the 'Value Plus 80', which requires a commitment of RM80 each month for six months.

So if you are to buy an 8gb iPhone : RM2540 + RM80x6= RM 3020, excluding sms and voice rate. For a 16gb iphone, it would be RM3440.

For a 12 month plan, the first package is called iValue1. An 8gb=RM1900, while a 16gb=RM2290. It requires a payment of RM100/month. And an additional advance payment of RM200 is needed, which will be refunded from 1st month onwards. This includes 333 mins of calls, and 500mb of data usage. Additional usage will be charged accordingly to the rate 15sen/min and 0.5sen/kb data.

RM1900+1200=RM3100 for an 8gb. And RM 2290+1200=RM3490 for a 16gb.

For a 12 month plan, with the iValue4 package, an 8gb iphone costs only RM1080, but the monthly payment is RM375. And the advance payment is RM1000 this time around.

RM1080+RM375x12=RM1080+RM4500=RM5580. Of course you have to fork out an additional RM1000 when you buy the phone initially. (will be refunded)

For a 24 month plan with the subplan iValue 4, an 8gb phone costs RM0! Wow! While the the monthly commitment is RM375.

RM375 x 24 = RM9000.

iPhones on the internet costs within the range of RM2400-2600 for a 16gb, without any contract tied to it. You could buy it and unlock it yourself and use your existing SIM card.

I won't say it is good or bad. It depends on your financial status. But it certainly is not student-friendly.

PS : All calculations made using the iPhone application called 'calculator'.