Optus launches unlimited data broadband bundles

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news Australia’s second-largest telco Optus this morning announced it would bring unlimited downloads to all of its broadband bundle packages, in a move which further ramps up the telco’s challenge against cut-price unlimited data challenger TPG.

From today, the telco said in a statement, new and recontracting Optus customers would be able to choose from a new range of home broadband bundles, “all with unlimited data”. In addition, customers will be able to save $20 per month off their bill when they bundle their Optus postpaid mobile plan with one of the new broadband bundles.

Ben White, Managing Director of Marketing and Product at Optus said, “Optus has been offering unlimited broadband bundles for years and we know how much our customers love the freedom that unlimited data offers. With 31 per cent of Australian households using content streaming services such as Netflix and Stan, the demand for data has never been greater.”

“Extending it to all our new broadband bundles means customers will never have to ration their broadband data, now they can get all of Optus’ entertainment offerings at once and have endless entertainment at home.”

Customers connected to Optus via the National Broadband Network, or Optus’ HFC cable or ADSL2+ networks could choose between three plans, all with unlimited data included.

The first, ‘My Basics’, costs $60 per month for “eligible Optus mobile customers” and including a $125 up-front connection fee. This excludes the cost of the customers’ Optus mobile connection, but appears to include the aforementioned $20 discount fee if customers have a mobile connection. It comes with all local calls included from the customer’s landline.

The other two plans are ‘My Entertainment’, which includes a FetchTV streaming television service, as well as all “standard” local, national and mobile calls included, and the connection fee waived, and the ‘My Entertainment Plus’ service for $129 a month, which comes with the additional FetchTV “Entertainment Channel Pack” included, as well as international calls to selected countries.

However, NBN customers will want to carefully check the fine print for each of these plans, as Optus will vary the included plan speed (from 12Mbps to 100Mbps) depending on which unlimited plan you sign up for, and if you want higher speeds you’ll need to add on speed booster packs.

If your premise is outside Optus’ own network footprint, it appears you can connect to the telco through a third-party on what Optus calls its ‘Reach’ network.

Optus offers two unlimited data plans — ‘Reach Basics’, which costs $90 per month, includes the $125 connection fee and comes with all local, national and mobile calls included, and ‘Reach Entertainment Plus’, which is similar to the My Entertainment Plus plan mentioned above, but with a $125 connection fee.

You can download Optus’ full PDF document with its plan details here, and see the company’s statement on these plans online here.

opinion/analysis
How do these plans compare with the competition? Well, it depends on what competition you’re talking about.

Obviously they compare favourably with plans from iiNet and Telstra on paper, as those telcos do not offer unlimited download plans. So, if you want to download a huge lot of data, you’re going to be better off with the likes of Optus’ unlimited broadband plans, particularly if you also bundle your mobile phone in.

I like the fact that Optus has set these unlimited plans up in a set of very simple tiers as well — this makes it easier for customers to understand.

However, I’m still not massively keen on them in general, for several reasons.

For starters, these plans do apply to Optus’ HFC cable network, which you really do not want to be on at the moment, as it is highly congested, according to Delimiter’s research with Optus customers and former staff.

Secondly, Optus is being less than transparent up-front about the fact that some of these plans come with speed limits on the NBN. This means that you’ll need to add speed booster packs on if you want to use anywhere near a lot of data on the NBN.

Ultimately, if your priority is a lot of data at a very cheap price, I would recommend that you instead pick TPG over Optus, for both ADSL and HFC cable plans. But if your priority is getting a lot of data at a moderate price, with bundling options and good customer service, I would recommend taking a strong look at these plans, comparing them with similar plans from Telstra and iiNet.

And above all, read the critical information summary documents Optus provides before signing up for any of these plans. They are more complex than they look (which is always the case with Optus).

20 COMMENTS

  1. The Optus deals sound great on paper, but after doing the math, I would end up worse off than I was on TPG (I’m currently on iiNet). To get everything I would want from Optus, I would have to get the Entertainment Plus Bundle, and then to have a good speed on the NBN (when it gets to my part of Zillmere), I would have to add either $20 or $30 for 50/20 or 100/40. All in all, it would cost me $170-180 a month through Optus. If I swap my mobile back to Optus, I can “save” $30 a month. I’d rather stick with my $70 a month through iiNet…

  2. “However, I’m still massively keen on them in general, for several reasons.” should be “still *not* massively keen” ?

  3. I dont like how optus are now showing the prices on their website. The $60 price states “When bundled with an eligible Optus mobile plan” that means the plan is actually $80 with a $20 bundle discount? The previous prices that optus were showing just a month ago were standalone prices with the option of a $10 bundle discount. Much more honest the way they were before.

  4. Aren’t there a lot of complaints and TIO issues currently with Optus not provisioning enough back haul for their non-unlimited plans. With often no plans of upgrading (according to peoples comments about it).

    Now they are increasing the data to unlimited? Not sure that would work out well for anyone.

  5. I don’t find a lot of value in ‘unlimited’ plans.

    I have a 50/20 FTTN plan (nbn) at home and generally average 400-500G per month. That’s with a pretty decent and varied amount of usage (regular streaming, video calling & cloud backup) & fair number of devices (~30 devices connected to home gateway).

  6. “Again”?.

    Didn’t Optus get slapped on the wrist a couple of times in the past for using this “misleading” advertising?

    Obviously it’s impossible to use “unlimited” data, and knowing Optus they will have some “fair use” clause to chop off or severely restrict anyone who even tries.

    • Downloaded the terms and conditions, indeed it does have “FAIR GO POLICY APPLIES”, so once again we see the ACCC will be dragging Optus over the coals as they breach the Trade Practices Act 1974 AGAIN with their “misleading and deceptive” advertising and plans.

  7. Optus. They can’t beat Telstra at being Telstra. They won’t beat TPG at being TPG.

  8. Fantastic, the Optus network is already congested enough as it is due to the introduction of the original unlimited plans and Netflix 12 months ago, putting everyone on Unlimited is going to absolutely trash what little capacity there is left.

  9. Optus is not congested in every suburb. I get the full 30 Mbps not matter the time of the day or night. I am in Mount Kuring-Gai, NSW.

  10. My Optus Cable (HFC) peak hour congestion mostly disappeared earlier this year.
    Rarely drops below 50Mbps down during peak hours.
    Usual above 70Mbps down 24*7
    Currently running at 90Mbps as I type 10pm EST.

    • They’ve been doing significant upgrades to the HFC network. There were heaps of congested nodes apparently.

      Basically after the NBN Optus HFC revitalised the network that Optus had written off and was able to kill. I know this because up and until recently Optus refused to sign up customers to HFC in my area. I asked Optus for 4 years straight but it wasn’t until the NBN deal that they would accept my order.

      I’ve spoken to somewhere in order of 20 Optus people (obviously i’ve had some problems) and they’ve been pretty chatty about how the nodes for the most part are congested and faulty.

      Most of them expressed surprised that the service, at anytime, exceeded, 30mbps. So yeah a lot is going on with optus at the moment

  11. Hi Renai

    Could you ask Optus what sort of contention ratios they run and what are their guiding principal for node upgrades/congestion i.e. upgrades are triggered at links hitting 80% peak capacity?

  12. Please ensure you report accurately… These new Optus unlimited data plans ARE in fact available to those Australian’s on Optus’ HFC cable network. Furthermore, there is congestion at times on every network and after being on Optus HFC cable for 20 years, in my experience the network has been incredibly reliable and has handled the boom in data consumption very well. I’m now on Optus NBN and was a little sad to say goodbye to be honest. I struggle to understand why you highlight TPG as your preferred ISP.

    • “there is congestion at times on every network and after being on Optus HFC cable for 20 years, in my experience the network has been incredibly reliable and has handled the boom in data consumption very well”

      That’s good for you, but your experience counts for naught when Optus is easily the #1 most complained about ISP in this country, highlighted greatly when Netflix launched.

      Again, it’s nice for you that not many people in your area have Optus (and therefore their network in your area appears to not be massively oversubscribed) but at the end of the day their practices are well known.

      TPG have a similar issue, but their pricing more closely resembles the network they maintain.

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