MyRepublic has officially thrown down the gauntlet.

In a press statement on Wednesday, the telecom company – that for a long time hasn't kept a secret its ambitions to be the fourth telco in Singapore – announced two mobile plans for the public to register their interest for.

1. A 2GB plan at $8 per month (excess data at $8 per GB) 

2. An unlimited data plan at $80 per month 

And for existing MyRepublic broadband customers:

1. A 2GB plan at $6 per month (excess data at $8 per GB) 

2. An unlimited data plan at $60 per month.

In case, you are wondering about the SMSes and talk time, MyRepublic has clarified with Mothership.sg that it will offer a data-only network and thus no SMSes and talk time.

"MyRepublic will offer a data-only network, which means voice services will use data applications. We will have our own carrier-grade voice app at launch which will allow subscribers to call fixed line or mobile numbers as they currently do. They will also have the option to use other apps such as Skype or WhatsApp if they prefer."

We plan to have SMS and voice available as an add-on service at competitive market (prices). Incoming SMSes will, of course, be free. Details about this will be released closer to our launch date, should we win the 4th telco license."

The above plans don't require any contracts, so one can drop off anytime.

How much will this then cost you? Say, for instance, you are a fairly heavy data user — maybe you use 5GB of data a month (and bear in mind, this could happen even if you typically only use 1 or 2GB of data but make a lot of calls). If you hop onto the 2GB per month plan, you'll be topping up $8 for each additional GB that you use. That translates to a $32 per month phone bill.

And how much data does a voice call use up? It depends on whether you're calling on a 2G, 3G or a 4G network, as well as which app you're using to make or receive the call, but according to this Quora thread, a voice call on WhatsApp can use up 740KB (or 0.74MB) of data per minute, on average.

You can then do the math based on the number of minutes your calls take up, typically, to see if it makes more sense to go for an unlimited plan.

In case you're wondering, by the way, this isn't a completely unique situation — the current telcos have SIM-only plans, which are customised to your mobile phone habits and similarly don't require contracts.

Singtel: $20 for 5GB (3GB local data + 2GB Singtel wifi) This is actually the same price per GB but 2GB can only be utilised using Singtel wifi, which is not available everywhere.

StarHub: $21.45 for 3GB data (comes with 150 minutes local outgoing calls and 1o00 SMSes)

M1 (one-month commitment): $30 for 3GB data (comes with 300 local outgoing calls and 1000 SMSes)

Tempted? Click here to register your interest.

Photos from my4thtelco.sg.

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