Vodafone best value in market with Prepaid Mobile Broadband# Starter Pack^

SYDNEY – July 27, 2009 –Vodafone Australia has upped the ante in the Prepaid Mobile Broadband# market, dropping the price of its Prepaid Mobile Broadband Starter Pack^ to $129 (was $149).

Vodafone’s Prepaid Mobile Broadband Starter Pack^ comes with a stylish USB modem internet stick and, if customers activate their Starter Pack^ between 22 July 2009 and 30 September 2009, they will also receive a huge 2GB of included data (normally 500MB included data).

Vodafone Prepaid Mobile Broadband customers can purchase Prepaid Mobile Broadband recharges for $19 (500MB), $29 (1GB) or $49 (3GB). Plus, unused data can be rolled over if customers recharge within 30 days of connection or their last recharge.

Helen Tuffy, Head of Mobile Broadband at Vodafone Australia said, “Vodafone’s Prepaid Mobile Broadband gives customers the freedom and benefits of mobile broadband without any strings attached. Now customers can enjoy the rewards of prepaid services and high-speed# wireless internet at an even more affordable price.”

For more information, please visit http://www.vodafone.com.au/personal/mobilebroadband/mobile-broadband.htm

-ENDS-

[Lifehacker]

The complicated tango between the iPhone and AT&T’s network isn’t a new story, but the latest stats—web browsing eats 69 percent of phone bandwidth—highlight the fragility of networks, allowing fresh portents of doom.

The WSJ’s math runs like this: AT&T charges iPhone 3G customers the same $US30 a month it charges every other smartphone user, but they use two to four times the data, because data is essentially unlimited. Which leads to further costs, like having to constantly expand the network’s capacity to keep up with demand, which isn’t cheap—$US6 billion on overall capacity annually. That’s problematic because the amount of money carriers are supposedly making off of every customer—average revenue per user—won’t increase dramatically with new data revenue, not like it used to by simply piling on new customers. (And at this point, the new customers are not high revenue ones, mostly.)

So the WSJ says “in the short term, carriers should abandon unlimited data pricing plans. Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless already charge extra for heavy users with wirelessly connected laptops. They will have to contemplate similar strategies for smartphone users.” Right.

On the other hand, clearly the iPhone isn’t all bad—AT&T’s fighting to keep it exclusive longer, and it was responsible for about half of its new customers last quarter.

Still, I’m not really looking forward to making a phone call on AT&T in June or July, whenever the next iPhone is released. [WSJ]

[Three]

The service will launch only on BA’s business-class-only flights from the smaller London City airport to New York’s JFK, so right now this is limited to banker types who can afford it. Also, the Telegraph does not hint at rates or service providers for the service. Other airlines like Emirates and BMI have implemented similar deals, and it seems like a pretty good compromise to the voice-calls-on-planes hubbub. No VoIP! [Telegraph via Mobile Burn]

HP is mum on exactly which carriers they’re talking to, but those two were mentioned as possible candidates. HP hopes to quadruple their netbook sales to 40 million by 2012 with this plan, so hopefully the subsidy will knock enough off the price to make it worthwhile. Netbooks are mass-market now, but the overlap with people who already pay for a 3G data plan on their phone and want to just tether it will be one issue to surmount. [WSJ]

For 20 bucks (or $19.95 for the pedantic among us) over 24 months, you get 1GB of data over Voda’s 3G network, plus it will cost you $5 per month for the USB Internet stick. That price is $10 a month less than the previous offering.

If you’re a data hound, you can get 5GB for $39.95 a month, with the USB modem included for free over 24 months. That’s down $10 on previous pricing as well.

Considering Vodafone pops you on their 2.5G network when you run out of 3G (rather than charge you roaming fees on Telstra’s network, a la 3), this is a pretty solid deal, and potentially the best offering on the market at the moment.

[Vodafone]

The exception, of course, is Telstra, who are banking on the fact that their NextG network is superior to the other carrier’s offerings that it keeps its prices at a premium to put it politely.

The good news is that even Telstra is starting to come to the mobile data pricing party, although they’re still waiting in their car out the front, waiting for everyone to come to them rather than go inside and be social.

The new plans, which are available from Sunday, start at $39.95 for 400MB and go up to $129.95 per month for 10GB. The standard 1GB, which costs $15 on 3, will set you back $59.95 on the Big T, while 3GB costs $89.95.

On the upside, Telstra customers who add the wireless internet option to their existing Telstra account can get their wireless offerings for half price for the first 12 months of a 24 month contract. Additional usage is at 25 cents per MB, which is pretty much what you’d expect from Telstra.

I find it very hard to recommend this to anybody living in a major city who can survive on an offering from the other, cheaper networks. But for rural users, any price cut is a good thing, right?

[Telstra]