Virgin’s new pre-paid broadband makes Optus’ look lame

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! It’s funny – Optus owns Virgin, but “lets” Virgin totally outclass it with a pre-paid broadband plan that quite frankly isn’t stupid. What is it, good cop and bad cop? Whatever it is... Virgin’s pre-paid broadband is the best one yet. When Optus launched its pre-paid broadband plan recently, it had this totally ridiculous stipulation that whenever you connected for the first time, you used up something like 10MB from your download limit right from the word go – even if you were just checking one single email. Of course, that kind of mega bandwidth cap “flagfall” is just silly... and needlessly complicating. So, Virgin Broadband’s announcement this morning of a pre-paid mobile broadband service “that works like a mobile phone pre-paid plan” is quite refreshing... even though it is effective from the “same” company that brought us the crazy plan in the first place. Ok, ok – so Virgin and Optus aren’t the same company, but Optus does own Virgin and so is effectively competing with itself. Anyway enough of ownership structures and onto the plan itself.... Virgin says its new plan offers customers “flexibility, value and freedom for all their broadband needs”, making it “even easier to use your broadband as much or as little as you like without being tied into any contracts or monthly fees.” Pitched at students, housemates or anyone that doesn’t want to be tied down to a contract just to be able to get a bit of mobile broadband, Virgin says that “it works in the same way a pre-paid mobile phone works – you simply buy a voucher for your desired amount and top up again once you are ready.” And with over 18,000 stores across Australia where vouchers are available, Virgin applies the marketing and says: “there really is no reason to ever run out of credit or spend more than you budgeted for.” Peter Bithos, the ‘new’ CEO of Virgin Broadband said: “We are so excited to be able offer our customers an even easier way to use their mobile broadband with the freedom of topping up whenever they like with whatever value they need. “Here at Virgin Broadband we focus on our customers and what they want. Right now, they want broadband at great value, with flexibility, freedom and ease of use and we believe we have just the product for them,” he continued. So, what does it all cost? That is the all important question, after all... and the answer is on page 2. Please read on. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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