Voda slashes wireless broadband prices; Optus unveils HSDPA upgrade

Send to a friend Print
Dan Warne30 March 2007, 7:19 AM

Mobile networks haven't taken the wireless broadband price challenge from Three X-Series lying down: Voda has today slashed its prices, while Optus has announced a network upgrade to HSDPA.


Mac compatible: Vodafone has one up on Telstra: Mac compatibility for its USB HSDPA modemMac compatible: Vodafone has one up on Telstra: Mac compatibility for its USB HSDPA modem
Vodafone and Optus have quickly reacted to the audacious Three X-Series launch, with Voda slashing pricing and Optus announcing a network upgrade to 3.6Mbit/s HSDPA.

Vodafone's reduced monthly pricing is considerably improved but still behind Three X-Series: for example, $19.95 buys 100MB on Vodafone, while $20 buys 500MB on Three; $59.95 buys 1GB on Vodafone, but $60 buys 2GB on Three.

The main lure being used by Vodafone to win customers appears to be a free USB HSDPA modem (normally worth $349) for anyone who signs up to a 24 month contract on a plan above $59.95 a month.

Even people who aren't interested in the free modem will need to recontract with Vodafone for 12 months to get access to the improved monthly plan fees.

Optus has also unveiled a mobile network upgrade to HSDPA across 600 towers in Sydney and Melbourne, and the telco is promising its whole 3G footprint will be HSDPA by the end of May, providing 55 per cent population coverage.

It will then continue building the 3G network to cover 96 per cent of the Australian population from June onwards, for the next three years.

Optus is promising typical speeds of 500Kbit/s to 1.5Mbit/s, with a cell theoretical maximum of 3.6MBit/s.

Optus is running a promotion commencing May 2nd, offering an HSDPA USB modem that normally sells for $239 for $99 if a customer agrees to sign up to Optus Wireless Connect for 24 months.

However, Optus may find it has a hard sell to do because it lags in wireless broadband service pricing. Only Telstra is now more expensive, with Three and Vodafone having slashed their plan fees to well below Optus' current levels ($29.95 for 100MB, $39.95 for 200MB, $59.95 for 500MB or $129.95 for 1000MB.)

Optus spokesperson Luisa Ford said the company had "nothing to announce today" about repricing its service.

It's worth noting that both Vodafone and Optus can now offer Mac support for their wireless broadband products, something that is a sore point for Telstra, which has, as yet, been unable to source stable Mac-compatible drivers from its HSDPA modem supplier, Maxon.


Post your comment



Comments

 RSS feed Email alert

geoff hunt:

all these price changes are well and good but i don't understand. if you get a faster speed at a cheaper cost but you only get a few meg from that plan where is the benefit. as it appears now the faster you go the the more you access the more you burn up your megs. i am on isdn and i use around 4gig per month(2 kids).they are always talking faster faster faster but if they only allow megs what is the point. ok gigs are on offer but that starts to get too pricy. i think they need to look plans starting at 2 gigs for $20 or maybe i just dont understand at all.

29 February 2008, 8:30 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Teaspoon:

This is high-ish speed data transfer over mobile phone networks. It's not for bulk home/business use, it's for those little things you have to do while you're out and about - checking your emails, getting directions from Google Maps, etc. Typical usage on this sort of system is likely to be around 50MB/month.

29 February 2008, 8:40 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Dan Warne:

Yeah -- I receive all my email from my home and work email accounts on my Blackberry, and surf the web whenever I'm standing in a queue or at a bus-stop, and because of all the over-the-air compression and optimisation they do, my usage is about 15-25MB a month.

I reckon where the Hutchison X-Series plans really distinguish themselves is the ability to use the phone with your laptop as a high speed modem... but even so, I'd want to be using my home internet connection at home for the heavy duty downloads.

I guess what the other poster was saying was that these plans are no good for 'full time' use, but I don't really think that's the intention of them. Telstra's the only company marketing their mobile network as a full-time broadband access method, and many telco analysts think that's a fraught concept because there's simply not enough radio bandwidth to support hundreds of thousands or millions of users going flat-knacker. I mean, the total shared bandwidth of each radio cell is only 14.4Mbit/s -- that's like one cable internet connection shared between a cluster of suburbs.



29 February 2008, 8:40 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

FNQ:

This is so cool!
I live in Townsville and my husband has added apcmag as the “home website”.
He is the techie - It is his fault!
We have Next G coverage up here and that is about it. No Optus, no Voda HSPA (or whatever) here….
On Next G we get 2.2Mb downlink speeds in and around Townsville and I have been told that it will soon be even faster. I just can’t wait to place my next order with Nordstroms.com – the faster I can get my shoes order the better! The good news is – my husband is paying the bills so I really do not care!


29 February 2008, 8:30 PM (2 years ago)report abuse Send to a friend reply

Not signed in
anonymous user Anonymous user


Tags