Introduction
The telco market in Malaysia has recently underwent some welcome shake-up. Never before has so much flexibility been placed back in the hands of consumers, and its all thanks to one company called Yoodo. Yoodo, also known as Project Yellow in its development stages back in Celcom's Labs, has finally launched as a fully-digital telco company. That is to say that you can't find any physical retailer or reseller for Yoodo anywhere, and that all correspondence, payments and tweaks are done through a single, dedicated app.
Sim Card Delivery and Setup Process
The SIM package is very well-designed and pretty self-explanatory. The SIM card is a standard issue 3-in-1 model, with standard SIM, micro SIM and nano SIM sizes all available on a single pre-cut plastic board. Once you pop in your SIM card and download the app, the SIM activation process begins.
App Setup Walk-through
The app setup is pretty self-explanatory, but I took the initiative to compile a step-by-step guide in the slideshow below to guide you through the setup process.
I did run into some slight difficulties when I was undergoing the facial recognition for the ID/Passport verification. Make sure that you hold your phone vertically and further away from your face if the app doesn't seem to capture your face well (meaning: Ensure that your face is smaller than the in-app face template. You do not need to make your face a perfect fit on the template.) If you've any further questions on the app setup, feel free to leave a comment below or check out Yoodo's Help Page. Plan Options
The main selling point - at least I think for many people - would be the incredibly flexible options that will spoil you for choice, a first for telcos in Malaysia. I've compiled a comprehensive price guide for you below, with numbers pulled from the Yoodo website itself.
We are living in an information age, and Yoodo knows this. Data has long surpassed talk-time as the main product offering for many telcos, and it is no different for Yoodo. In fact, they offer a staggering 11 options for data alone! The cheapest being MYR12 for 2GB worth of 4G data, all the way up to MYR98 for 100GB.
The customization probabilities are endless, and you can customize your phone plan every month if you wish. For example, you might want to have 15GB of data (40) + 100 minutes of talk-time (7) + 200 SMS (8) and 20GB of Youtube quota (10). This brings your total to MYR65 for one month. What if you need to leave Malaysia for vacation abroad next month? Well, just change your options before the end of your current billing cycle (for example if your plan starts on 9th November, be sure to make the changes before 9th December). The bare-minimum and the cheapest option you need to keep your plan going is MYR3 for 50 SMS. In fact, if you need to go on overseas attachments or need to spend a long time away from Malaysia, you can maintain your account for a low minimum of just MYR3 each month! It really saves you the hassle of terminating and registering a new number or paying dormant fees. Roaming and IDD
Speed and Coverage
Since Yoodo runs on Axiata infrastructure, more accurately Celcom's framework, Yoodo users can expect more or less the same coverage and performance as what Celcom offers.
EDIT: Removed a statement about how Celcom reception is present in my neighbourhood but Yoodo wasn't. Yoodo has fixed the issue and currently has good reception where I live. When I am in the city or topographically flat areas where antenna signals and reception are stronger, I have no issues whatsoever with Yoodo's coverage. Compiled below are a series of three tests that quantifies the internet speed of Yoodo.
Aggregated, download speed is at an average 7.01Mbps and upload speed at 9.83Mbps, with ping around 24ms. In terms of LTE benchmarks, its speeds hover averagely around the median. However, speeds are geographically sensitive, and you might experience different data speeds depending on where you are.
Final Thoughts
I think Yoodo is a welcome new contender to the Malaysian mobile telecommunications market. Being a new business, it will no doubt have to expand in terms of their services offered and improve on some minor stability issues before it can become a reliable and serious consideration for consumers.
Many people will not be willing to wait though. I see the minimum MYR3/month required to maintain a plan and extensive customization of data, SMS, talktime and boosters as big crowd-pullers. The convenience of not having to visit a physical store for issues and transactions might be a double-edged sword. If they can stand their ground in terms of customer service and online problem resolution however, then I think their business model is a unique and forward-thinking change that would bring a breath of fresh air to consumers. Download the Yoodo app here !
If you have spotted any error(s) or would like to contribute to this piece, please use the contact button to fill up a contact form, quoting the title of this piece and relevant info.
I am not a representative of Yoodo and am not paid for this review. I purchased a phone plan on my own means and this review represents my truthful and uninfluenced opinion of the service. I stand to gain referral rewards when you sign up using the code provided throughout this article.
2 Comments
Jane
5/15/2020 02:01:12 pm
How's the connection? It's a subsidiary of Celcom. Being a Celcom user; the line is bad. So, I wonder how would Yoodo be. Based on reviews I've read, some said that, if Celcom is bad in a particular location, than Yoodo should be the same
Reply
5/15/2020 04:05:49 pm
Hi Jane,
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