VHA cuts prices, boosts talk and data on new smartphone plans

We’ve said it before and we’ll keep saying it again, and again: we love competition (or ‘we heart competition’, if you want to speak like a geek).

Competition means everyone works harder, and with so much competition in the smartphone space that translates into lower prices and better deals as the carrier fight for your dollar.

Exhibit A: Just nine weeks after launched the HTC Desire on its Next G network, Telstra has discounted the desirable Android phone down to being a freebie on its $49/month cap plan.

The fully-subsidised, no-handset-repayments Desire was previously available only on cap plans north of $79 per month.

Despite having almost four months left on its six month exclusivity lock for the Desire, Telstra’s move is seen as a response to Optus’ $59/month deal for Samsung’s Galaxy S which the carrier launches tomorrow.

However, while Optus is shovelling 1GB of data onto the Galaxy S along with unlimited access to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace, Telstra’s $49 package includes just 200MB of data (along with $400 of talk and text).

Exhibit B: VHA has beefed up the value of its smartphone cap plans for both Vodafone and 3.

Vodafone’s consumer and business plans from $29/month to $79/month now pack up to an extra $300 worth of talk and text while the ‘unlimited’ caps drop now start at $79 (formerly $99) for unlimited national voice calls plus national and overseas texts with 1GB of data ($99 gets you 2GB of data).

3’s contract caps get higher talk+text value and plus a dollop of extra data. For instance, the $49/month plan sports $450 of calls and SMS messages (up from $350) as well as a tenfold boost in the monthly data allowance, from 50MB to 500MB.

By the end of this month all VHA customers on a contract cap of $29 or higher will also be able to make free unlimited calls between the Vodafone and 3 networks.

You can check full details of the new plans out at vodafone.com.au and and three.com.au.