My younger brother had been persuading me to get a Sony Ericsson K800i mobile phone for my mum had an extra line to renew the contract. I was not satisfied with my Nokia 6230i for it was quite lagging.
k800i
3.2 Mega pixel camera
After looking at my brother’s K800i, I realised it was really a good phone for it was user-friendly and much faster than my old 6230i. Since I could get the phone for free after selling my 6230i, I agreed.
My mum and brother did the travelling to Chinatown to settle it while I lazed at home. I was not that excited when they got home and it was proven that I was very new to good phones.
One thing I cannot understand about my mum is that she keeps complaining about the high electricity bill each month but she never wants to save up.
She knows well air-con is very energy-consuming but she still insists in using it every night.
At first I thought after my younger brother had enlisted, things would be better. However, my mum still insists in switching it on every night and finally I realise it is not my younger brother who wants to enjoy such luxury.
To me, it is more of torment instead. I think using of air-con during normal or cold weather is a waste of money and resource; moreover it will lower the temperature to an unbearable degree. Why pay extra money to torture yourself?
My mum used to be such a miser but now I cannot be certain of it anymore. It is definitely not money well-spent. I mean I do not mind and would definitely appreciate it if the weather is extremely hot that fans cannot help to keep us comfortable.
The next culprit is none other than my elder brother. Last time when he was serving the army, electricity bills were much lower.
He is an enjoyer and would do anything that can please himself regardless of the cost. Despites complaints from my mum, he would switch on the air-con even in the day.
Situations become worse now after he gets a girlfriend who visits my house very often; he uses air-con almost everyday for long hours until the electricity bills are kind of insane.
Even though he has been earning more than me since young, whether getting part-time job or serving the army and till now as an insurance agent, he has been spending so much more than me without saving any cent each month. Basically, his bank account falls to near zero each month and I really wonder if he has any plan for the future.
Another big issue is the mobile phone bill each month. My brother’s bill is more than hundred dollars each month. The money my mum has to pay for his phone bill is more than the price of all the plans except the most expensive one in all the three mobile phone subscribers.
If you do not have a big head, do not wear such a big helmet.
It is so nice to have a free incoming call line, such that when someone calls me, I need not rush to put down the phone. Even when strangers dial the wrong number, I do not mind.
However, I get teased by Gilbert nowadays when I start to complain about the poor reception.
I choose Starhub despite this because they charge outgoing calls by seconds and not minutes; it will definitely save up a lot for me.
I have heard so much from almost everyone that Starhub has the worst reception among the three main mobile phone line service providers in Singapore – inclusive of Singtel and M1; I used to think the poor reception means only the coverage of area, until I get poor reception at every place – my house and camp.
Each time you see me stretch my hand up with the phone high in the air, do not find it weird because I’m trying to get back reception in a faster time.
Anyway, I’m currently using this PowerValue100 plan ($25.20) which costs around $20 after 20% discount for Corporal plan. It consists of 100 minutes free outgoing call and 500 free SMS (additional 500 with student pass).
I have called the service line thrice; two of the operators said no to my additional of free 500 SMS (privilege of ***, same goes for Singtel services) but corrected themselves after checking it out. Now, I’m waiting for news after faxing my 11B over.
Just a tip for current M1 users, they offer me this free service of SMSing you if you have a missed call when your phone is switched off or has no reception. Try and ask for it if you think you need it.
I had an $11 mobile phone plan that my mum never had to pay extra money for my bill each month except for the $5 caller-id charge. It was an old plan from M1 services.
Every month, I saw my friends or my elder brother having exploded bills, but I restricted myself so well that I maintained a clean sheet record; I never chatted long on the phone even with babes. It was my pride and certainly the certificate to my sensibility to show that I was a thinking person with good self control.
It was until my army life as a permanent staff in my unit after my driving course and ROC trip, I could never redress for my guilt. I was quite depressed over the extra charges for my overused amount of airtime. It was unfair for me because most of the calls were for the army’s matters and army was not paying for my excess charges. I was not even working outside as a businessman to earn big money and why would I need to use the phone so often other than SMSing with friends?
Maybe it would be a different story if I was not posted to my current unit – an institute; a combat unit would not require so many phone calls I supposed. So frequently, I was thinking how the army would function without mobile phones; life went on in the past till now and things were still going smooth.
So many shits had caused my phone bill explosion - “Clients” calling my phone directly instead of my office phone maybe because they knew I would do my best to serve; colleagues asking for my location when they obviously knew I did not like to hide around to “eat snake”; colleagues asking me to call others; colleagues borrowing phone from me as their batteries were low; and other ridiculous things.
Even if someone else was to pay for my bills, I would not take it low-lying as my own integrity for clean sheet was relegated.
After hesitating for so long, I had decided to sign up for a new plan. The problem was that I wanted to change my line only after I ORDed so that I would not be receiving any unwanted calls from the few mad people from my unit or my clients who did not know I was already released from hell; however, the recent phone bill explosion threatened me to do it immediately so that my mum needed not pay more than double for my bill each month.
The reason for choosing Starhub was that their outgoing calls were charged by seconds. Since I usually would use it for short enquiries, I could have saved a lot from it. I had considered Singtel for the less lagging and higher reception coverage but never for M1 because of the latency in SMSing and sometimes my friends did not even receive my SMSes.
Since Anqi was working at the Starhub Centre for corporate plans, I had decided to go to her directly. I had checked up with the telephone operators some weeks ago and that I could get Powervalue100 plan for around $20 with 100 minutes outgoing airtime and 1000 free SMSes. I had decided on Sony Ericsson’s 750I for its camera even though I would only need a phone mostly for calling and SMSing.
I went to find her on Thursday night and was greatly disappointed. Firstly, she told me I could only get 500 free SMSes for the plan unless I could produce a student card from anyone and that this batch’s 750Is were always giving problems. She could have told me earlier a week ago when we were out together.
Anyway, I decided to stick to the plan and maybe, tried to get help from my friends to get a student card. As for the phone, I changed to Nokia 6230I since N6230 was my previously targeted phone, even though now that the newer version N6230I was already out for quite long already. Nokia phones were not as good as other brands’ ones nowadays but the battery life was still one of the best and since I was used to all the navigation, and being cheaper, I supposed I had made a good choice.
I spent so much time to separate those more commonly used contact numbers between my SIM card and 3120 so that I could transfer them over to the new SIM card. My plan was to stick to 3120 first since I could not bring the 6230I to camp. Since the older line would be terminated soon, I left it on the new phone without the excess contacts.
Since today was a Saturday, the operating hours would be from 9am to 2pm but my mum had left home at 9 plus before I could wake up. I called the M1 line 68438333 to try to terminate the line but I could not do it without my mum by my side as it was under her name. Since I did not want to miss the outing with Peh and the rest at Marina Square KTV, I called my mum who reluctant to do it on her own due to poor communication skill, but she did it in the end.
In the meantime, I called Starhub to check for my plan. The lady told me I could not use the Student plan for another extra free 500 SMSes as I was using corporate plan. Then, after checking out, she told me I could even do it using my 11B instead of a student card. However, I had to wait on as my details were not in their system yet.
I waited for quite some time and called her to find out the status since she did not call me back. She told me she was on phone and was going to call soon. Then, she told me the operator had told her about auto-roaming stuffs.
So, I had to call them back and they could only tell me the status when I could provide them with my mum’s details, but not to amend anything. She told me we might have to cancel any auto-roaming with another service provider – Singtel or Starhub. I asked if my line could be only terminated at end of the day and she told me my mum had to do it personally herself again to get it done since it was already terminated. My mum called and she was told that it could not be done.
The reason for continuing with my old line till end of the day was to finish the excess SMSes to use them to inform my friends of the change of number. Out of the mess, I decided not to let myself be bothered with M1 anymore; so, I started mass SMSing my contacts with my new line – a waste of SMS.
I was not that lazy that I did not want to SMS my friends but some of them were at overseas, especially for the army friends who might be at Taiwan now for exercise. I spent the whole journey from Tanjong Pagar to Marina Square doing the SMSing as I was afraid my friends would contact me through the terminated line soon.
I was trying through SMS to get Wei Chuan to join Gilbert, Terry and I to swim later but he did not reply me.
Suddenly, he messaged me in MSN and asked if I were free in the morning. So, I remembered I did not include my name in that message and I thought he had asked Terry about it and was trying to play a fool on me.
I was surprised when he invited me to his church. As I questioned him, I realised he had not read my message. It was some time after he logged off, he replied me that he had finally received it.
M1 - it is getting slower and slower. It has been causing me troubles by the latency during emergency time and worse still, some friends have failed to receive some of my messages. I regret badly to sign up with them years ago for the cheap phone. And now that my contract has ended (actually since last year), I can finally fly away.
I believe in SingTel's network, but the Starhub's count-by-second's privilege is a better grab. I would choose Starhub rather for their prices are almost of same price for corporate rate.
Since I've been getting explosion for my bill these months ever since stepping into Signal Institute, I think I really need to get a free incoming call plan soon; however, I want a new number after ORD so that I will not be contacted for the camp's stuffs and thus I'm at a lost to whether get the line now or during my clear leave period.
It is a decision hard to make, and only if I'm rich I need not bother so much.
