Compared to the past, many elderly people are now accustomed to using smartphones as a daily communication tool in recent years. To cater for this demographic, different telecommunications services providers have introduced a wide range of monthly mobile service plans claiming to be tailor-made for the elderly, offering various options for the silver economy consumers in terms of data allowance, data access speed, airtime, and other value-added services. To help consumers make informed decisions, the Consumer Council surveyed a total of 21 monthly mobile service plans offered by 9 telecommunications services providers, including plans for the elderly and lowest-priced regular monthly mobile plans, for a comprehensive comparison and analysis. It revealed that while some 4.5G (4G) mobile service plans for the elderly were cheaper than regular monthly plans on the market, or provided extra services, some regular 5G monthly plans were found to be about the same price as elderly 5G plans but with more data allowance. The silver community should compare and pay more heed to contract details and restrictions to be a smart consumer.
From April to May this year, Council staff posing as consumers enquired with 9 major telecommunications services providers about their monthly mobile service plans for the elderly, as well as their lowest-priced 4.5G (or 4G) and 5G monthly plans, and compared the content and charges of the plans. In addition to a total of 10 monthly plans catered for the elderly offered by 4 services providers, information on 11 lowest-priced regular monthly plans from 6 services providers (among which 1 provider also offered a plan for the elderly) was also collected for comparison, making it a total of 21 monthly plans.
Most Elderly Plans Offered Waiver of Administration Fees
5G Plans Came with Higher Monthly Fees but Offered More Data Allowance
Among the 10 elderly monthly plans surveyed, the contract period ranged from 12 to 24 months. 9 plans waived the monthly administration fee of $18 while the remaining 1 required credit card autopayment to qualify for a waiver. After taking into account the administration fee and monthly fee rebates, the actual fees of 2 elderly plans were the lowest at $38, while the highest-priced plan was $158 per month, a difference of over 3 times. The difference in monthly fee is mainly related to data allowance and access speed. The 5 plans which used 4G or 4.5G mobile network all had a monthly fee of $68 or below, with data allowance ranging from 5GB to 10GB. Among these, the 2 plans with the lowest monthly fee were capped at a lower data access speed of 21Mbps and 42Mbps respectively, which would generally be more suitable for senior citizens who seldom use mobile apps. The remaining 4 plans were all 5G full speed plans with actual monthly fees ranging from $98 to $158 and data allowance from 10GB to 50GB, more suitable for senior citizens who have no broadband connection at home and need to watch online videos on their mobile phones. Users of these 10 elderly plans could continue to enjoy unlimited data in speed throttling mode after exhausting the monthly quota, with 7 plans offering maximum speeds of 128kbps to 384kbps, whereas the remaining 3 offered 1Mbps. Users could pay additional fees to restore access speed to its original levels.
With the end of the pandemic, outbound travel opportunities for senior citizens also soared. 5 of the 10 elderly plans included roaming services in the Mainland. The 2 plans with the most roaming data allowed for 2 days of Mainland roaming data plus 100 minutes of call service to the Mainland per month, as well as a Mainland mobile number for use. 2 other plans offered roaming data and free incoming calls from the Mainland and Macau. Elderly consumers should pay heed to the difference.
Elderly Plan Applicants Must Meet Age or Other Requirements
Onerous Conditions for Some
Many telecommunications services providers laid out specific requirements, including age, for their elderly monthly plans. 8 of the 10 elderly monthly plans had relatively simple eligibility requirements, only requiring applicants to be aged 60 or 65. However, the remaining 2 plans with the lowest actual monthly fee ($38) had more restrictions, with 1 plan demanding applicants to be aged 65 or above, and must be either on the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, Old Age Living Allowance, or be able to provide proof of approval notification for free smartphone and local stored value SIM card under the “Jockey Club Digital Support Project for the Elderly”. The other plan required applicants to be aged 60 or above and to settle payments by credit card transfer, otherwise they had to pay half of the monthly administration fee ($9), bumping the actual monthly fee to $47.
In terms of pricing, Council staff’s enquiries found that the 4 telecommunications services providers offering elderly plans did not have other regular plans with lower actual monthly fees, thus were indeed more beneficial to the elderly. However, only 1 of the 4 services providers offered additional services for the elderly under its 3 plans, such as free billing statements by post, while the elderly plans by other services providers offered services similar to their regular plans.
Elderly Plans Might Not be More Economical than Regular Plans
The survey also covered 11 of the lowest-priced regular monthly plans from 6 services providers, with actual monthly fees ranging from $42 to $298 after accounting for administration fees and monthly rebates. Among the 4.5G (4G) plans, the lowest actual monthly fee for regular plans ($42) was about 10% higher than the lowest actual monthly fee for elderly plans ($38), but that regular plan provided only 300MB (i.e. about 0.29GB) of data per month, while the 2 elderly plans with the lowest actual monthly fees allowed 5GB and 7.5GB respectively. In addition, the services provider of that regular plan required users to pay a year’s monthly and administration fees in advance, totalling $504. As for the 5G plans, the lowest monthly fee was $98 for both regular and elderly plans, but the monthly data allowance of the regular plan (20GB) was double that of the elderly plan (10GB) of the same price, making the regular plan a better deal for senior citizens who use more data.
Council Urges the Industry to Keep Up with the Times and Update the Code of Practice
The Council receives a considerable number of complaints each year about monthly mobile service subscriptions for the elderly, many of which involved sales disputes. The “Industry Code of Practice for Telecommunications Service Contracts” issued by the Communications Association of Hong Kong stipulates that operators must provide a cooling-off period for contracts signed with their customers, and disallows automatic renewal of contracts, but the cooling-off period is only for 7 days for “contracts concluded during unsolicited visits to a customer’s home” and does not apply to service extension and renewal subscribed under existing contracts. However, there have been many changes in the sales practices of telecommunications services providers, and due to the pandemic in the past 3 years, very few salespeople have visited consumers’ homes directly to promote their services, rendering these requirements, established back in 2011, archaic. The Council calls on the industry to keep up with the times and update their Code of Practice, and revise outdated content to protect the rights of vulnerable groups which include the elderly.
The Council reminds senior citizens to follow these tips in choosing a monthly plan and using a mobile phone:
- Consider the basic monthly charges along with administration fees and monthly rebates to calculate the actual monthly cost, and at the same time compare services among different plans like data allowance, data access speed, and monthly call minutes, instead of only considering plans labelled as “for the elderly”;
- Take personal lifestyle needs and habits into account. For example, if frequent travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland is necessary, consider plans that include roaming service in the Mainland. If there is no need for roaming services, check whether the mobile roaming function has been turned off to avoid paying high roaming charges;
- For those who confirm acceptance of service with the services provider through the sales hotline should request the provider to provide a written contract as soon as possible, in case of any disputes in the future;
- After signing a contract with a services provider, if the terms are found to diverge from expectations, check immediately whether the cooling-off period has expired. If there is no stipulation of a cooling-off period in the contract, or if the cooling-off period has expired, other avenues of recourse may be needed;
- Pay heed to the renewal of monthly plans, including whether the contract will be automatically renewed upon expiry, continuance of the original terms and benefits upon renewal, and whether there are any special provisions for switching to another services provider, etc.
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