Virgin Mobile Says Other Telcos Selling Air Because They Take Your Data Away

When you think about it, Australia’s mobile telcos are all pretty boring. But wait for it, this afternoon got exciting thanks to some shade from Virgin Mobile’s CEO. He thinks other telcos are ripping you off, donchaknow.

In a bid to promote Virgin’s new data rollover offer, the telco’s CEO David Scribner, said that other telcos are selling customers “air” by taking data back that they’ve already paid for, according to a mUmbrella report.

Scribner also went on to say that telcos aren’t telling their customers just how much data they’re using each month in a bid to keep it all a secret, adding that he found the whole process “amazing”.

“You buy [data] every month and if you don’t use it it gets taken back by the telco? Are you kidding? That’s amazing,” he said.

Obviously, saying something inflammatory about other telcos is a great way to promote your unique offer. That’s exactly what Virgin is doing, and it seems to be working pretty well so far seeing as how you’re reading about it.

For what it’s worth, there’s something about data rollover I find a little weird and potentially disingenuous. There’s nothing wrong with giving people extra data every month, but for me it’s a case of same shit, different stink. Wouldn’t it be nice not to have a business model based on data caps at all, and instead sell customers speed instead? Australia has some of the most capable networks in the world when it comes to speeds available. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could live in a world where we were all treated like grown ups on our phones? [mUmbrella]


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