Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
In a sign that the “broadband cap increase” wars for 3G services is
still alive and kicking, Internode has finally increased its $39.95 cap
from a measly 3GB to a much nicer 5GB limit.
Australian ISP Internode, which has been reselling Optus’ 3G wireless broadband service through a service called “NodeMobile” since April this year, has just announced that it is raising some of its 3G data download limits.
Wireless broadband has always been far more expensive than fixed broadband services, and the same remains true today, with companies such as Optus, Vodafone and Three all offering around 6GB of data for around a $39.95 monthly price.
Telstra, which still offers the fastest wireless broadband 3.5G network in the world, has much more expensive pricing than its competitors, but offers a speed and quality of service competitors can’t yet match.
While the best competitive boosts come from the carriers themselves in lowering prices and/or increasing broadband limits, wireless resellers such as Internode still have a big impact on the market.
One will be that Internode and Optus customers (with Internet reselling the Optus service) now have to contend with more usage of the network, something that some long suffering Optus wireless broadband users won’t welcome.
But Internode customers on its 3G wireless broadband plans certainly will, even if Internode clearly hasn’t been as generous as it could have been. After all, $39.95 gets you 6GB from some providers, but at least Internode’s highly embarrassing (and now previous) 3GB limit has been increased to 5GB, evening the ledger somewhat, while still making us wonder what happened to that last gig.
Internode has also boosted its $14.95 “entry-level” plan, taking it from an equally embarrassing 256MB of data to a more respectable, but still tiny, 500MB of data.
Unlike telecommunications companies which often fail to advise customers of cheaper new plans, Internode is promising that “All existing NodeMobile Data customers will automatically benefit from the increased quota.”
Internode product manager Jim Kellett said “the increased quotas would make NodeMobile Data even more attractive to customers”, adding that "The first month has demonstrated that the service works seamlessly, so now we've increased quotas to put out the welcome mat for even more customers.”
Well, good luck Internode, the world of wireless broadband can certainly use all the competition it can get, but I wonder how soon Internode will need to raise its caps again?
David Bass
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