Optus ‘yes’ Timeless plans: they’re timed, have limits and exclusions! (updated)

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by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Page 1 of 4 ! When is an unlimited plan NOT an unlimited plan? When it’s timed, has limits and exclusions which are listed in the fine print for you to discover, probably when it’s time to pay the bill. Should the use of the words ‘unlimited’ and ‘timeless’ be banned when it comes to telecommunications companies? NOTE: NEW STORY UPDATE FOLLOWS Related stories Yahoo!'s Zimbra spiffs up iPhone support MacBook touch - here's hoping it's not a pipe dream Google goes to 'Android Market' in App Store challenge Telstra's UK 'expert' all "false assumptions and bias" says T4 Why iPhone 2.0.2 fixed problems for some users UPDATE 24th July 2008: This article has now been UPDATED and SUPERSEDED with a new article called "Optus 'yes' Timeless plans: timeless after all, 'Fair Go Policy' snafu." In short, the publicly available "Optus Mobile Fair Go Policy" that I relied on for this story was out of date during and after the launch of the new 'yes' Timeless plans, a fact that was acknowledged by Optus in the story linked above, thereby causing some of the conclusions of this article to now be invalid. Please read the above linked story for new information as supplied by Optus and illuminated within the updated "Optus Mobile Fair Go Policy". The original story is as follows: It’s all over the news: Optus has “stopped time” with its new “unlimited calls and sms” plan, but if you read the Optus “Fair Go” Policy, there are limits that you need to be aware of. These three new “yes” timeless plans are as follows: a $113.95 plan (made up of a $99 voice plan and a 200MB $14.95 data plan that must be taken together), a $119 voice plan that has no data aspect and a $129 plan that includes 2GB of data. Clearly this last plan is THE plan to get if you want “almost” unlimited voice, video and SMS, with a nice 2GB of data to boot. It's also a great plan for the iPhone 3G, with the iPhone coming 'free' with these plans if you choose to get a phone with the plan instead of using your existing phone. Optus is also launching a “yes” $79 Cap Plan + Unlimited Text which includes $550 of calls, unlimited text messaging and ‘yes’ time to call Optus mobiles for 20mins between 8pm-midnight ‘free’ 7 night a week. So what do you get with the new “yes timeless” plans according to Optus? You get “unlimited national voice & video calls [to standard landlines and mobiles], standard national SMS & MMS and PTT [push to talk]”. As we looked at above, depending on the plan you choose, you get either 200MB of data or 2GB of data to play with, counted as both downloads and uploads, after which you pay AUD $0.35 per megabyte. What this excludes is using data services to make calls, voice and video calls to international landline and mobile numbers, 13, 19 and 1800 numbers, 124YES or directory assistance numbers, premium SMS messages and anything else that isn’t specified in “what’s included”. Excluding 19 numbers is understandable – these are premium numbers that have a per minute charge, usually quite expensive at several dollars per minute. But 13 and 1800 numbers? Continued on page 2. << First page <   1 2 3 4 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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