Optus the carrier who openly admitted last Xmas that it ripped off their customers is set to announce new pricing in an effort to lure back mobile phone users who have deserted the Singapore owned network.
Telstra who has done a better job of offering value has seen their mobile numbers swell due to a faster and larger 4G network, now Optus wants the customers who deserted their network back, the bait is a mobile plan that toggles usage on both tablets and smartphones.
The new plans launched today by Optus copy those released by Telstra but instead of a $10 one off charge Optus is charging $5.
Telstra also charges $10 extra per month to activate the shared data service.
The new Optus service is known as “bucket plans” which is similar to what US carriers offer.
Optus chief country officer Paul O’Sullivan said the new plans would help customers use up their data allowances. He also said Optus had seen growing demand for SIM-only plans.
Optus who have been losing customers after they admiktted at Xmas time that they had in the past rorted consumers.
Optus had 9.59 million mobile ?customers in the three months ending March last year, but this number dropped by 160,000 to 9.43 million in the three months ending March 2014.
Telstra dominates the mobile market with its subscriber base growing by 739,000 in the first half of 2013-14 to hit 15.8 million.
It was only six months ago that the then Optus CEO Kevin Russell admitted to a packed Christmas party that the Telco had for years been ripping off and overcharging customers, Russell has since quit the carrier .
Acting chief executive Paul O’Sullivan will reveal the new strategy that allows their customers to share mobile data allowances across multiple devices spanning both tablets and smartphones for no extra charge at a Sydney press conference.
The Australian said that the plans have been designed to target the 3.7 million Telstra customers – 23 per cent of Telco giant’s 15.8 million mobile subscriber base – who use tablets to surf the internet, but who must also pay extra if they have a separate ?mobile phone service with the Telco.
Telstra delivered a similar service back October, it charges consumers $10 to activate the plan and another $10 monthly charge for every device connected to the ?account. “Having one data subscription for all of your mobile devices will be a game changer for the industry,” said one source.
“Although these new plans will hurt Optus’s revenue, it will hurt Telstra even more as much of the telco’s growth has come from this mobile broadband space” the Australian reported.
During the past five years Telstra has almost doubled revenue from its mobile broadband subscribers to $1.2 billion.
That represents 13 per cent of Telstra’s $9.2bn mobile business, which includes mobile phone revenue and hardware sales.
Optus is also expected to boost the amount of data attached to its mobile plans as an extra incentive for customers to defect back to Optus.
It is also expected to unveil a new range of SIM-only plans with no lock-ins that will target customers who already own expensive mobile devices like Apple’s iPhone or Samsung’s Galaxy handsets.
