Is Optus pushing the limits of 'unlimited'?

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 16:37

Opinion and Analysis

With VHA making much of its new 'post paid plans with 'unlimited' on-net calling and with Virgin Mobile countering by pointing out that it has offered the same 'for years' it seems that Virgin's parent, Optus, it seems, couldn't resist getting in on the act by announcing new prepaid offerings that it claims are 'virtually unlimited'.

This is even worse than unlimited plans that are limited by so called 'fair usage' policies (which VHA says it has abandoned: unlimited really, really means unlimited). A virtually unlimited plan is as oxymoronic as that old chestnut "90 percent pregnant."

According to Optus' press release "With the new $70 and $100 Optus Turbo Max pre-paid plans, Optus customers can enjoy virtually 'unlimited' mobile usage with the flexibility and certainty of pre-paid."

Not exactly. If you think "mobile usage" means using your mobile to make calls, think again. It means using your mobile to call other mobiles in Australia. Call a landline and you'll pay 89 cents per minute and a 39 cent flagfall. And what does this 'virtually unlimited' mean? It means 3000 minutes per month to other mobiles. Ok so that's more than two whole days in the month on the phone non-stop but it's not unlimited.

Pay $100 and you get your 3000 minutes plus 3,000 SMS and up to 2GB of data per recharge: all to be used within 30 days.

Go the Optus web site and the claim of 'unlimited' is even more blatant. "$70 = $70 included credit = Unlimited* Calls to any mobile within Australia." Yes, underneath there is an other asterisk and it says "*Unlimited calls and SMS to any mobile within Australia up to a maximum of 3,000 minutes (and 3,000 SMS on $100 recharge). Excludes premium SMS."

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