Woolies just keeps expanding like the Borg. The group now includes supermarkets, Big W, Dick Smith, and Caltex/Woolworths petrol stations — and it’s at these locations that they’ll be selling a $2 prepaid 3G SIM pack and Android phones. Powered by Optus, ‘Woolworths Mobile’ will have $29 and $49 prepaid caps, but make sure you read the fine print.
Two models will be on shelves: The Huawei Sonic ($188) and LG Optimus ME ($138). The news certainly confirms Giz reader sightings over the last couple of weeks.
On the caps front, that 5GB is no misprint, but there are major caveats. You’re not allowed to tether, data is counted is 1MB increments, and you don’t appear to get any of the free social network traffic that other carriers provide. Lifehacker says the call costs aren’t great either: 89 cents per minute for calls, with a 30 cent flag fall.
I’ve included this chart from Whistleout below as it’s a decent recap of the mobile plans that are out there. However, it doesn’t really show important areas you should always look for and take into account: extras like free social networking and free calls — or easy to miss catches, like no tethering in Woolies’ case. [Woolworths Mobile]
B
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 5:39 PM5GB of data on a $29 pre-paid??? Is that a typo??
TSH
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 5:42 PMHoly shamoly. $29 gets you 5GB with a 45 day expiry on the Optus network. Not bloody bad!
StevoTheDevo
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 5:44 PMBoth insanely good value plans!
Especially with a 10% discount..
Angus Kidman
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 5:52 PMThere are some big catches though: you can’t tether and data goes in 1MB chunks
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/08/woolworths-to-sell-android-phones-launches-prepaid-cap-plans/
B
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 6:08 PMThanks for that Angus. The devil is always in the detail!
I’m curious how that works with push email for example … 1MB per email? Surely not … ?
StevoTheDevo
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 6:21 PMIt’s interesting that the TOC say you can’t tether yet number 3 on the feature list they spruik for both Android Handsets is tethering, or in their words “Personal WiFi Hotspot”!
I reckon the ACCC would be happy to get involved if they were to actively block such a feature on the network (if it’s even possible – how do networks determine whether data is “tethered” or direct to the device?), whilst promoting the feature in their advertising.
trk
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 6:30 PMHow can you they prevent tethering? AFAIK any Android tethering app acts exactly like NAT so the provider doesnt get notified of tethering anyway….. Unless they do packet inspection (which they dont) how would they know youre tethering?
prepaidplans
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 6:04 PMIts about time they cranked up their mobile efforts. Been very quite for a very long time. Great data options with these packs.
Matt
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 6:46 PMThough I’m on postpaid now, I’d always buy pre-paid recharges at Woolworths Petrol, you still get any promotions, like this 10% off with the rewards card, but you also get an extra 4 cents per litre off petrol, which usually means another dollar or so off the price.
dave
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 1:06 PMno tethering… what the fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 looks like i just got fuked over…
Jesse
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 2:54 PMPersonal Hotspot doesn’t work I got fucked over. I paid someone to unlock my phone so I could swap to this network as well… :(. Classic case of too good to be true.
Tim...
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 5:23 PMWhatever… im tethered right now :P
Will let you know if i get booted…. I plan to download lots! Then recharge in a few months time when I want to go on another download spree.
This recharge with 5gb cost me $15.50 (woolies deal) :p