So this is an observation of mine about carrier pricing in particular Optus.
If you go through carrier deals, or you are the ones like me that keep an eye out on those, you will realized that since mid 2019, they have all gone super stingy. When you strip away all the prepaid deals, device sale (mostly Vodafone) and outlet initiate deals (JB, GG and HN), you can see that there was almost zero deals. Last know good deal was in fact Optus’ 20% sale during last click frenzy. Follow by their rapid price tweak of the mid range plan which eventually now set at $49 for 60G… hardly a deal.
Does any of you think the three major carriers is coming on broad this year for Click Frenzy? My prediction no. Vodafone and Telstra was never big player on deals anyway although they are both list partner on Click Frenzy site. Optus is the one that I am watching out but looks to be gone. In fact their plans are so bad now even if they do a sale it will still look crap. Say thy give 20% discount this year again, the medium plan become $39 with only 60G, I may as well pay Vodafone another $10 and get 100G. Optus Facebook has so much complaint about their service which again it is unlikely to change anytime soon, like Vodafone you will have to go through the garbage call center. So if there is no difference between the two, why would I want to choose Optus? Telstra still better in terms of services when compare to the other two so they will keep their market position as they were.
It is no secret that the big three has abandon the sub $30 market for the mvnos to fight it out, which is fine. Sensible people is not going to compare Optus with Someone like Circle of Life. The problem is now their pricing is not good on the medium to high end plans either and without a solid service to back up the premium, where do they think they are heading……
I have to say this again. Optus is the really sad story here. Their recent so call “Family Plan” $150 for four sims to share a lousy 250G is a joke. One year ago $160 buys you four sims with 320G (80G per sim). Dial back another year you can get 400G data for $150 and it come with two free IPad.
So what does that left with us this year? Well if you have plans to spend some money in Harvey or you plan to get an iphone then the current Optus promotion through Harvey is most likely the best you can get. If you are simply trying to cut down the monthly bill then it is hard to look pass the Circle of Life deal. I would think twice as using them for your main number just in case they lost your number during the port, too much horrible stories. Its is ok to use them just for the data (second sim) though.
When Optus shut down Virgin Mobile, that was the death knell for “cheap” offerings from B+M telcos. Everyone dropped subsidised handsets in favour of SIM plan + interest free loan under the guise of “no lock in” despite the fact that carriers already had “no lock in” (insofar as the only cancellation fees you’d face were for the handset, as is the case now; Telstra being the telco who would charge cancellation fees too).