KINIBIZ Celcom Axiata Bhd (Celcom) unwittingly kicked off a price war with its entry-level RM38 postpaid plan in April, which spurred the other three major telcos to respond with competitively-priced packages of their own.

According to the individual telco customer service representatives, U Mobile’s promotion period for its plan will end on Aug 31, Celcom’s promotion July 16, DiGi’s RM36 promotion until July 15 and Maxis’ additional 2GB data (for six months) promotion will end July 31.

In a nutshell, competition is heating up in the telco space and it looks like it is now becoming a consumer’s market, unlike recent years where the telcos have been dictating the prices.

“We believe the current price war will eventually lead to reduction in other mobile plan rates as well, given that these aggressively-priced entry-level postpaid plans are much more attractive than any prepaid or high-end postpaid plans currently in the market,” AllianceDBS Research said in a report dated July 1.

“While overall mobile operators’ revenue might still be sustained due to higher usage despite the lower rates, margins are likely to be affected by higher operating costs, particularly network and marketing expenses,” AllianceDBS added.

Another analyst with a local bank-backed research house concurred. “We’ve seen a lot of telcos responding to Celcom’s plan, it is just a matter of time before the prices stabilise. I think now the telcos have moved on to the prepaid side of things as well, offering data at attractive prices. The question is how they will start monetising data.”

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