Scott Lorson, director of Optus' marketing, consumer and multimedia division told ZDNet Australia that the company's existing 5GB and 10GB plans would change. The existing plan -- which includes 5GB of data accessed at peak broadband speeds -- would be extended to 6GB of data. In addition, the price of the now 6GB plan would fall from AU$134.95 per month to AU$99 per month if the service is bundled with an Optus phone service. If the service is not bundled, the price will fall from AU$154.95 per month to AU$129.95 per month.
The 10GB plan would be extended to 15GB, with the price of a bundled service falling from AU$265.95 per month to AU$239.95 per month (and AU$305.95 per month to AU$299.99 per month unbundled). Lorson said that around 95 percent of Optus customers choose to bundle their phone service with the Internet service.
"In general we just wanted to provide an additional incentive to customers to upgrade their plans," said Lorson when asked about Optus' motive for the price cuts. "The majority of customers join on the 550MB or 3GB plan [and this provides] a clear migration path as their usage profiles change over time."
Lorson said although Optus expected sales to increase under the new plans, the company was not expecting a large influx of new customers. "This is really an opportunity for our existing customer base rather than a strategy to [gain market share] from our competitors," he said. "The vast majority of the market are covered by entry level plans."
These plans are great. But one thing. When will Optus start to provide these services in other states other than the Eastern states. There is no point in dropping the plan rates but not providing a service to the whole of Australia.