Optus launches prepaid wireless broadband - with a snag or two

by Stephen Withers

Monday, 18 August 2008

Page 2 of 3 For comparison, 3 charges $15 for 1G/month or $29 for 3G/month on postpaid, $49.99 for 5G and $59.99 for 6G. These rates are discounted by $10 if bundled with a home phone or certain mobile plans. The Optus prepaid $70 and $100 vouchers are a little more generous, expiring after 60 days. But even that's tame when you consider that some prepaid mobile phone recharges last for six months or more. You might have thought that prepaid mobile broadband would be a great way to attract people who think they only need intermittent access - say a few tens of megabytes on two or three days a month. Providing a much longer expiry period would attract them to the service, and once they realise how convenient it is, Optus would stand a good chance of keeping them. As it is, the main advantage of the prepaid offering (apart from not being locked into a 24 month contract) is that it protects you from the risk of paying the swinging $153.60 per gigabyte excess data charges levied on postpaid customers. Yep, 15 cents per megabyte doesn't sound too bad, but when you work out what that means per gigabyte it's positively horrifying. Instead, a prepaid customer could buy another 2G of data for $30. That lasts for 30 days, and works out at just under 1.5c per megabyte. Hmm, is it just coincidence that is one-tenth of the postpaid excess data charge rate when Optus charges for prepaid data in 10M blocks? Call me cynical if you must. For comparison, 3 meters usage in 1K increments. What happens if you already own an appropriate modem? Find out - and share your opinion of the Optus prepaid mobile broadband pricing - on page three. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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