Like the geeky kid who snuck into the party, siphoned off some beer and after a glass and a half became drunker than Russell Crowe on Grand Final day, Optus has decided to go for a skinny-dip in the pool of Naked DSL. But instead of offering a VoIP home phone option like iiNet and Internode, they’ve decided to bundle their Naked plans with mobile phone contracts.The Naked plans start at $60 a month for 7GB of data, or $50 a month if you bundle with a mobile phone contract. If that’s not enough data for you, there’s 15GB for $70/$60 (with mobile) per month, or 30GB for $100/$110 (with mobile) per month.
On top of that, the Telco has decided to offer “month-to-month” broadband plans, which allow customers to get online without signing up for a 24-month contract. The catch here is that you have to sign up to either an Optus home phone or post-paid mobile contract to be eligible. Pricing is similar to the naked offerings with the bundled mobile contract.
Now the obvious question is whether or not getting Naked is enough to turn Optus from geek to chic in the mobile internet fraternity. That, and whether or not they’ll actually use the naked mole rat in their advertising campaign. Let’s hope not.
[Optus]
Ryan
Monday, March 2, 2009 at 1:30 PMAny word on whether these options are available to existing customers of Optus broadband/mobile/phone or just new ones – ie. if i use OPtus for all three will i be slugged the usual outrageous cancellation and processing fees to change to this more sensible approach, or is it just a ploy to lure people away from providers who’ve been more reasonable and forward thinking from the start? One suspects the latter. It would be also interesting to see if the wrapped mobile plan includes iphone plans – optus seems to view this as different from its other mobile offerings…
boudic
Monday, March 2, 2009 at 4:53 PMwow those rates are absolutely terrible, but hey this is talking about optus so what do you expect.
Luke
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 9:58 AMOptus joining the Naked brigade is great to see. It’s good to see them willing to cannibalize their own fixed line/PSTN market in order to be progressive and give the market what they want. And their push to bundle mobile instead of VoIP is an interesting twist. Whilst they might not be the best value plans on the market, at least it shows Optus are thinking and strategising. Which some may argue is a welcome change :)
James
Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 2:23 AMMost people who use naked which is bundled with voip, dont use the provided voip option.
Many people use PT, MNF, and Maxotel VSPs where it suits. Some of these rates would be hard to match.
However majority of people have mobile phones as backups, so offering naked dsl/cable bundled with mobile phone is an attractive offer.
However it is Optus,
If they did something sly and blocked the ports which meant you couldnt use VOIP, they would milk the money out of you for using the mobile.