Which telco offers the best SIM-only, no contract plan in Singapore?

With multiple MNVOs and a fourth telco, TPG, about to enter the market, Singaporeans have never had more choice when it comes to picking their telco service provider.

Smart consumers know that the best deals in mobile right now are SIM-only plans, as they tend to give you a lot more data, and often at a lower monthly cost. It does mean that you have to buy your phone without a subsidy, but it also gives you the flexibility of changing your phone whenever you want (as opposed to waiting until you're due to re-contract).

Additionally, while some telcos offer SIM-only plans with 12-month contract periods, it doesn't make sense to lock yourself into one of these, as telcos are constantly updating their SIM only plans with better and better packages. In just the first half of 2019, we've seen massive plan overhauls from all three major telco vendors. Keeping yourself to a no-contract plan gives you the freedom to jump to the best deal as soon as it becomes available. A lot of these new plans also give bonuses for being one of the first customers to sign up, so you don't want to be stuck waiting out your existing contract before switching providers.

But who's offering the best deal SIM-only, no contract plan right now? We find out based on various price tiers.

VALUE PLANS (~$20/MONTH)

The cheapest deal here is obviously Circles.Life's S$0 Flexi Plan. However, unless you're a very low usage customer, you will probably have to top up for some additional services, and the add-on options are actually quite expensive. Additionally, it's worth noting that incoming calls are not free on Circles.Life, so if people call you frequently (which includes anyone you don't know, like telemarketers), you'll quickly burn through your 30 mins of bundled talk time. Topping up for additional talk time is also quite expensive, at S$5 for just 30 mins more.

The overall best deal here is Singtel's new GOMO plan (GOMO stands for Get Out More Often), which gives you a massive 20GB data, and the most amount of talk time and SMSes for just S$20/month. StarHub's new Giga sub-brand has a good option at S$25/month if you need a lot of data + talk time and some roaming options, but as the lowest cost tier comparison here, Singtel's GOMO is still the attractive option.

BASIC PLANS (~$30/MONTH)

StarHub's new Giga service is a great new option that still competes well in this tier and most certainly better than StarHub's only S$25 SIM Only plan. However the overall best here goes to M1's new SIM-only base plan, which has a more generous data cap and better add-on options. You're getting quite a lot for just S$25 per month and has displaced our previous recommendation for Singtel's GOMO.

MID-RANGE PLANS (~$50/MONTH)

The most affordable and well-rounded plan here is Singtel's GOMO, which has a base price of S$20 and gives you 20GB data, 200 minutes, and 200 SMSes. But if you buy two S$10 add-ons, you get 40GB data, 400 minutes, and 400 SMSes, all for just S$40/month.

If you can cough up a little more at S$45/month, M1's new SIM-only base plan with its S$20 add-on bundle pack offers a staggering 80GB of data and 1,100 minutes of talk time and 1,000 SMSes! StarHub's option comes close, but it loses out with inadequate talk time, so you'll have to top-up a little bit to get a more usable figure.

HIGH-END PLANS

The cheapest deal in the high-end tier is Zero Mobile's Zero X plan. However, unlike our past comparisons where Zero Mobile is an easy recommendation, it's no longer as competitive as the previous tier's offering from M1, which costs less and offers much more.

Having said that, for a true high-end plan, M1's refreshed SIM-Only plan with the $50 add-on bundle option comes out on top in every comparison possible - data, talk time, SMS, add-on options, roaming service and more.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.