On June 10 this year, Optus will launch an upgraded version of My Plan, its suite of consumer-level mobile phone plans. They're a welcome move in the right direction.
Imaginatively titled My Plan Plus, these new plans provide more calling credit and larger data allowances, thus reversing an industry trend that had threatened to seem unavoidable. Furthermore, and in apparent response to Telstra, the new plans also include a data sharing provision, meaning that for a small fee additional devices can access the same data allowance.
If you're waiting for the bad news, there isn't much. The cheapest pre-paid plans have gone up by $5 per month (to $30 and $45 respectively), although the top pre-paid plan is actually cheaper (now $60, with a big increase in its data allowance).
First, the increased allowances. On all SIM-only tiers, data allowances have at least doubled. Increases are less dramatic on contracted plans, but still significant. Here's a handy table:
Type
Old Cost
New Cost
Old Data
New Data
Contracted
$35
$35
200Mb
500Mb
$50
$50
500Mb
1Gb
$60
$60
1.5Gb
2Gb
$80
$80
2Gb
3Gb
$100
$100
2Gb
5Gb
Pre-Paid
(SIM only)
$25
$30
200Mb
500Mb
$40
$45
1Gb
2Gb
$65
$60
2Gb
5Gb
Voice allowances are also up, in some cases increasing all the way to 'unlimited' (which is telco code for 'limited in ways you don't expect'.)
Type
Plan Cost
Old Voice (minutes)
New Voice (minutes)
Contracted
$35
200
300
$50
450
600
$60
600
Unlimited
$80
800
Unlimited
$100
Unlimited
Unlimited
Pre-Paid
(SIM only)
$25
200
300
$40
500
Unlimited
$65
Unlimited
Unlimited
Now to the data sharing. For an extra $5 upfront per SIM, you can now add additional devices to your plan, thus allowing it to access the data allowance on that plan. So for example, if you have a $60 plan (With 5Gb of data), you pay a once-off upfront fee of $5 to add your 4G tablet, and it can now also use that 5Gb.
Telstra recently launched something similar, with the difference that it costs an extra $10 per month per device, and is thus of questionable value given the ease of tethering modern phones, and considering Telstra's far less generous data allowance. We talked about them here. (Spoiler alert: we weren't impressed).
My Plan Plus retains Optus' existing provision whereby going over your voice or data limit automatically rolls you onto a $10 blot-on for an extra block of voice minutes or data. Back when these were released we argued that this was a smart move on Optus' part, and had less to do with an altruistic urge to combat bill shock than to move from an uncertain revenue stream based on bill blowouts than a steadier stream composed of thousands of constantly flowing rivulets. That's probably still mostly true, but the increased data allowances on the new plans certainly offset this. Fewer customers will be exceeding the new data allowances.
All in all, these new mobile plans from Optus are an excellent upgrade.