Vodafone’s pathetic plans don’t even try to compete
With Vodafone offering 5GB of mobile broadband for $39/month, we were hoping for a vaguely competitive iPhone offering.
When they posted pretty poor plans for a short while yesterday, we hoped it was a mistake.
We’re sorely disappointed. The plans have been resurrected today and consumers aren’t the winner: Optus is.
The only improvement from yesterday’s short-lived leak is the option to buy handsets over 24 months for about the same price as an upfront payment. Otherwise their pricing has us camping outside Optus World at midnight.
Assuming call rates are similar to Voda’s existing cap plans (40c per 30 secs plus 30c flagfall on a mid-range cap), Optus’s offering kills them. For $59/month, Optus gives $350 of credit and 500MB of data. For ten bucks a month more, Vodafone offers half the data and $310 of credit. Optus’s flagfall is 10c more expensive than Voda’s, but otherwise it’s like-for-like.
On those plans over 24 months, Optus will stings you $2/month for the 8GB handset versus $7.88/month on Voda.
Optus also wins on more expensive plans. If you’re after $1200 of credit and 1GB of data, Optus charges $149/month versus Voda’s $169. Optus will give you the 16GB handset if you sign up to 24 months, while Vodafone asks for another $89.
Can anyone see any redeeming features in Voda’s offering? Here’s hoping Telstra bring us something better … if they ever release the fine print.
Thanks Garth!
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
What a rubbish contract. Optus just got my vote… Now waiting for telstra’s prices and planning to cancel my current voda contract
as nick said yesterday, this is bordering on consumer contempt.
talk about Voda totally stuffing up their launch PR for what is the most exciting consumer electronics launch in australia this year. Apple would have to be spewing over this.
are they just a greedy telco – why would i want to pay $2 extra for a phone when going on a $99 contract!!!
be interesting to see what Telstra eventually come out with – at least on a $80 plan you get the phone for free. holding my breath on their data charges though…..
Absolute 100% rubbish.
Jesus people, how hard is it to offer something like a $30 plan?
You just know Telstra’s plans will be garbage as well, what with their fantastic internet plans and data limits.
I think the real problem is that Vodafone are not going to offer Prepay at launch. That means every man and his dog that wants it outright will be going through Optus which will probably cause major suplly issues.
According to the staff at the Perth City Optus store the Prepaid and Postpaid phones are different. Only a very small number of phones (4 for Perth city) will be available on prepaid. The rest (132 apparently for Perth City) MUST be put onto a contract. To me this is crazy BS – why can’t we just select a plan?
This has left me looking at the contract termination fees and raises an interesting point. Is it much more expensive to just buy one on a plan then cancel it and pay out the fees? and if so WILL they unlock it? how much extra to unlock it? When I was in the store talking to them they told me for example the 8GB on the 24month $49 cap will cost $898 to terminate on day one(7×24=168 handset fee)+(730 termination fee) to me this sounds way wrong because it’s not a massive amount more than the prepaid ones. Can anyone confirm – perhaps someone from an Optus store?
Has anyone put together a chart showing the different termination fees for each plan?
I think the point is that no matter what, a ridiculous amount of people will be buying it, hooking up to obviously too expensive contracts. So why would they compete on price, there’s nothing to compete against. It’ll sell out completely.
What are they thinking??? This really makes me laugh.. looks like voda are out of the race.
We NEED to hear what Telstra are offering! wouldnt wanna leave it to the last minute or anything.
haha, what a joke – and I thought the optus plans were ordinary when it comes to data. Something tells me this will change over the next year, and as such I’m glad they are offering 12month contracts on this.
I just spoke to my local Optus store. They’ve advised that unless you had prepaid the $100 fee to hold a Jesus Phone you won’t be able to buy one tomorrow. However if you sign up with them they’ll raincheck your phone and have it to you in a week or so.
So optus is already running out of stock. I’m guessing this will mean that more people will just pay the price voda is asking to get a phone in their hot little hands tomorrow.
Personally I’d rather wait…
I just got off the phone with Voda (who I am with now), they want to charge me some extreme amount just to move from my $79 to the $99 cap plan they have, that is crap anyway!
They dont even have a data plan for me to add to my current cap that is more than 100Mb. After being with them for almost 4 years (previous without a contract, just sticking with them because I liked their cap at the time) they are just royally screwing me over.
Not to mention they just randomly changed a whole bunch of things in my cap without telling me, including how they charge me for data.
Well Vodafone will still get my business! Why would I want to give business to Optus or Telstra? Both have the worst customer service you’ll ever experience – anywhere! Sure, I’ll pay a little more overall on a $99 plan but at least I’ll be with a company serious about customer service! That price is definitely worth it! And no, I don’t work for Vodafone!
Im currently on a $79 Supercap with Vodafone and have been eagerly awaiting the iPhones arrival. I have been a loyal customer for several years now and signed up last October for a further two years and was given a free N95. When I saw the pricing yesterday I phoned in for a payout figure to terminate my contract – it was $538 – so here are some sums.
Option 1) Stay with Vodafone – need to go on the $99 plan to get more or less the same call value and 500mb a month data. Pay an extra $9.13 a month for the phone – and thats if they let me have it for the discounted price part way through an existing contract – total $2595.12. If we add another 350Mb of data to match the Optus plan at 12c a meg that adds ANOTHER $1008 over the two years.
Option 2) Pay out Vodafone $538 – Go to Optus on $89 plan. get a free 16Gb iPhone, $600 in calls and 850mb data – total $2674
So basically bailing out of my contract not even half way through will save me nearly $1000 over two years with Optus.
I guess none of Enron’s “smartest guys in the room” found their way to Vodafone…
If Telstra had a $39/5gb add on plan I would be very happy keeping my current voice plan and adding the data plan, why don’t they do this? Because they still don’t understand the simple supply/demand curve and they enjoy treating their customers like idiots. I’m sure that Vodafone and Optus would have a great plan that can be customised to include the 5gb data plan for an additional $39
On the post yesterday about Vodafone taking down its plans as soon as it put them up, the screenshot at the bottom of the page someone captured indicates theres a $29 jumbo cap contract and a maxi cap contract also but I cant see this listed anywhere on the Vodafone site today.. any ideas people? Have they scrapped those plans since yesterday?
Well from what I remember Telstra (I think it was Greg Winn) was quoted by some reporter saying that Apple should stick to making computers. Seems they have changed their minds and jumped on the bandwagon.
OK – Bout to eat my words from before! Vodafone now officially sucks! Just got off the phone to them, even though I pre-registered weeks ago I WONT be getting a phone tomorrow! They will be sending all invites over ‘THE NEXT 24 HOURS” and then after I buy one online i “WILL HAVE IT SENT IN THE MAIL!” Are you serious??????? Feasibly, I won’t get one till Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest!!!
Optus mentioned today there were 20,000 iPhone available to Optus on launch day throughout Aus. Works out about 15 per store. Wait 2 weeks and the motherload should arrive.
Go check out dearvodafone.com.au, a Telco brokers letter to Vodafone executives regarding their stupid plans. He asks for your comments. I’ve sent my spite through!!!
I just got a phone bill from Vodafone of $1034.48 – i used about 5mb of data and i got charged roughly $100!!!
5mb and i got charged 100!!! how does that work out?? a bit of a rip off and not too happy about it