PUTRAJAYA: Civil servants will now enjoy a monthly rebate of RM10 for their respective postpaid mobile package under the RAHMAH Civil Servants Postpaid Incentive effective this Aug 31.

"It is applicable to any existing postpaid package," Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil announced in a statement today.

"This means that civil servants will save RM120 annually on postpad package payments," he said, adding that the incentive was a token of appreciation to civil servants.

Fahmi also shared that his ministry, with the cooperation of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), telecommunication service providers (telcos) and two device manufacturers, Samsung Malaysia and Honor Malaysia are offering the 5G RAHMAH package starting Aug 31 in conjunction with the National Month celebrations.

The 5G RAHMAH package is a 5G device bundle data plan priced at RM60 a month, with the choice of either a Samsung A14 5G or Honor 90 Lite 5G at prices as low as RM240.

"The 5G RAHMAH package is open to all Malaysians," Fahmi said, adding that the first 100,000 subscribers from the B40 group will be get to enjoy the package with the smart phone priced as low as RM120 instead.

The package, which has a 24-month subscription contract, will be available from Aug 31 with an extended warranty of two years for the smart phones as compared to the one year period previously.

Both the 5G RAHMAH package and the RAHMAH Civil Servants Postpaid Incentive are mobile data service packages that are cheaper than existing packages on the market, he said, pointing out that the Unity Government was serious about closing the digital gap and ensuring that Malaysians could afford quality Internet service at affordable prices.

Fahmi had shared yesterday that the government would be announcing special postpaid packages for civil servants today following complaints by frontliners on the field regarding the current price of postpaid packages.

Media reports on July 31 quoted Fahmi as saying that Internet package prices would drop by September after the Mandatory Standard on Access Pricing (MSAP) came into effect. The MCMC had also touched on the issue, stating on July 11 that the retail price of fixed broadband services based on the MSAP could only be applied after the access agreement was signed between service providers.

-- BERNAMA