Optus has revamped its mobile broadband plans by making its lower-tier plans cheaper and changing the way it charges you when you go over your monthly data allowance so you avoid the pain of a huge bill.
The new plans start from $20 per month for 1GB of data; followed by $30 for 4GB of data, $45 for 7GB of data, and $60 for 10GB of data. While the lower tiers are cheaper than what they are previously, Gizmodo points out that the previous 10GB plan was $49 per month compared to the $60 per month now.
Customers also have the option to pay on a month-to-month basis, or sign a contract for 12 or 24 months. Current Optus customers who sign up can also get 25 percent off their monthly mobile broadband fee (so, instead of paying $20 a month, you can pay $15 a month).
But the most interesting – and probably the best news out of all of the changes – is that if you do go over your limit, then you are automatically charged $10 for every additional 1GB of data (as opposed to 1MB of data). It’s great news because it reflects what’s happening now – data usage is increasing, but what’s stopping us is the hefty bill shock when we go over the monthly data cap.
In an interview with ABC’s Inside Business yesterday, Optus CEO Kevin Russell noted that the industry was still struggling in dealing with data.
“I think we’ve actually as an industry struggled with dealing with data. So I think the take-up in smartphones, the take-up in data traffic has caused challenges in network, but it’s also caused challenges in billing,” Russell said.
“Customers understand how many megabytes in a song. And customers almost fear of using data has become a real problem which we haven’t proactively addressed whereas a lot of European operators are global operators.”
“You can’t rely on 15-year-old children going over their caps and having $2,000, $3,000 data bills. That’s just wrong. It’s wrong morally and it’s not sustainable. So that has to change,” he later added.