Optus revamps mobile broadband plans

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 04 August 2010 13:07

Your IT - Mobility

Optus has announced a new range of mobile broadband plans starting at $A20 that differentiate between peak and off-peak usage.

New mobile broadband cap plans from Optus offer customers the chance to stretch their monthly quotas further by using the service in off-peak times. Off-peak use is effectively metered at half the normal rate.

So the $A20 plan is good for 1GB if used only during peak hours, or 2GB when exclusively used in the off-peak band.

Where Optus defines off-peak as midnight to noon for its fixed broadband services, the new mobile caps have a significantly less generous midnight to 6:59:59am off-peak band. So the deal will be more useful for larks and owls than those of us who keep relatively conventional hours (and would therefore only use the connection during peak hours).

Other plans in the new range cost $A30 (3/6GB), $A50 (7/14GB), $A80 (9/18GB) and $A100 (10GB/20GB).

All the plans require a 24-month contract. A USB modem is included at no extra cost in all but the cheapest plan. Those picking the $20 cap have the choice of paying for the dongle upfront or by spreading the payments over the term of the contract.

When you reach the cap for the month, there are still a few things you can do with the connection - see page 2.