Crazy John’s seem to have made a major move in the low cost prepaid mobile market with the recent introduction of their Flat Chat prepaid mobile plan.

Crazy John’s is owned by the Vodafone/3 Group and it seems that this will be their key product range targeted at the low cost end of the market. The Flat Chat plan is cheap.

Call rate is 10c per minute and the flagfall is 30c. You also have access to 1c texts (up to 100 per day). So if you make a 2 minute call, you are up for just 50c. This is cheap and at the moment is sitting just behind Virgin’s Bean Counter. which has identical rates, although call rates are charged at 30 sec intervals instead of Crazy John’s 60c and Virgin’s flagfall is just 25c.

Its a great deal and the bonus of the 1c texts is really appealing for the school students who must sms each other about everything.

A $25 recharge will last for 25 days (Virgin’s lasts for 45 days), $35 for 35 days, $45 for 45 days and lasts $55 for 55 days.

Competition is good and healthy for everyone. Keep up the good work Crazy John’s, hope to see more from you soon.

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Kiss Mobile look to be getting ready to launch an exciting new website and a range of new plans that will provide smart phone users with more options than ever before. My advice was to ensure they included a 500MB option in their range as I know that is what I spend on my phone each month.

KISS Mobile has been around for some time. They were one of the original sim only plans when I started the prepaidplans website and have continued to be innovative with their range of mobile data plans.

So with the launch of their new website, they are also providing all new customers with some freebies.  New Orders get free SIM card shipping & any amounts between $30 and $100 get a 20% bonus. Visit Kiss Mobile now!

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Telstra has announced a reshuffle of its data packs for prepaid mobile phones and will offer more data at a lower cost.

Prepaid browse plus packs can be purchased by Telstra customers who want to access the Internet on their mobile phone. The most notable changes include the base $5 pack, which has a new data allowance of 20MB (up from 5MB), and the $39 pack (750MB) which is $20 cheaper than previously.

Telstra has also added two new data packs for $49 and $79, offering customers 2GB and 4GB of data per month respectively, while $10 (150MB) and $20 (300MB) packs now include more data, up from 100MB and 200MB respectively.

Telstra says that once the customer has used all of their data allowance, an SMS will be sent to notify them. The customer then has the option of purchasing a new pack or browsing using the Pay As You Go rate of $2 per MB.

Telstra will also reward new prepaid mobile customers who purchase and activate a Telstra $2 starter kit before 31 August. These customers will receive 1000 bonus texts every time they recharge $30 or more for the next six months.

Telstra’s 1c Text customers also receive some more good news, with Telstra doubling the included data when they recharge $30 or more. This is in addition to the bonus texts offer that Telstra announced last week, where a $30 recharge will land 1c customers 200 bonus texts.

For those customers who recharge $40 and normally would receive 20MB of included data per month, their data allowance will double to 40MB of data for use in Australia within 30 days.

For full details of both the prepaid mobile data packs and the 1c Text offers, visit Telstra’s Exchange Blog.

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The best way to review 3 Mobile’s prepaid mobile phone plans is to take a look at how many calls you can get from the credit they offer. The $29 Cap gives you 71, 2 min calls to anyone and 71 calls to other 3 Mobile phones. The $49 Cap gives you 165 to any & 165 to 3 Mobile, $69 Cap offers 260 to anyone and 260 to 3 Mobile and the $99 Cap gives you 391 to anyone and 391 to 3 Mobile. I addition to all of this, 3 Mobile also offers data with each plan, starting from 150MB, reaching 2GB, plus all plans come with $10 worth of Planet 3. Credit for all plans is only 30 days.

So in summary, there is plenty of things to like about these plans as the credit is quite appealing even though the call rates and flagfall aren’t. What is a little disappointing is the boring credit expiry of just 30 days. This is something I think 3 Mobile should work on.

About 12 months ago, 3 Mobile also launched their bonus plans. The credit expiry was improved to 60 days and the call rates reduced based on how much you recharge. Bonus $30 has 35c per 30 seconds, Bonus $50 is 30c and Bonus $100 is 25c. In addition to the credit, the each of the plans gives you 75, 2 minute calls to 3 Mobile & 150 free text when you recharge. In terms of how many calls you can make with each plan to other networks, $30 gives you 17 calls to anyone, $50 gives you 32 calls and $100 gives you 74 calls to anyone.

I don’t quite get the value of the the Bonus plans. Obviously the rates are better but the total calls you can make are much lower. If you can stick within the limits, then the caps are better value.

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Dodo uses the Vodafone network like so many other providers (including Crazy Johns, Just Mobile, Savvytel). Dodo doesn’t seem to do a big song and dance about their prepaid mobile offer, I can’t say I have ever seen any advertisements for it. And it isn’t such a bad offer. Lets compare it to Vodafone and see how it compares to the Cap plans. The equivalent $30 recharge with Vodafone gives you $150 credit to anyone and $150 to Vodafone, Dodo offers $30Cr to anyone and 450 minutes worth of talktime to Dodo and Vodafone customers. For $50, Vodafone offers a total of $700 credit. Dodo offers $50Cr and 750 minutes to Dodo/Vodafone. To me it actually stacks up well. What is also great is that the call rates are 15c per 30 seconds. This is much lower than Vodafone and Crazy John’s.

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We’re changing the way our Cap plans work to give GRLmobileTM customers greater freedom to call friends and family on other networks. The current unlimited GRL2GRL* talk & text will now be capped, but will be extended outside of GRLmobileTM to include Vodafone and other Australian mobile networks. That means you can call other non-GRL girlfriends! For example a $19 Cap plan will now provide a maximum $120 talk and text value rather than unlimited GRL2GRL talk and text (with over-use incurring additional charges).

Plus, we’re also offering a bonus 500MB of Web data with each top-up, thereby providing our customers with even better and more useable value than just the previous unlimited GRL2GRL! Now you’ll have the latest news via internet, email, Facebook and Twitter – all at your fingertips.

And with the reduction on some popular call rates on GRLmobileTM prepaid basic, it means the majority of GRLmobileTM customers will receive greater usable value, for the same low price. Is that value or what? We look after our fellow GRLfrnds!

Changes are effective 18 May 2010.

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Have you been in the situation where you have had to turn your kids mobile phone off, taken the battery and sim away from them for a week so that you can manage the crazy phone costs they are accumulating talking to the friends every evening. Most parents unfortunately have, and most have also discovered that as the main bread earner in your household there is a better way to maintaining your sanity and that is investigating a prepaid mobile plan.

Prepaid mobile: A big plus for your budget

Advantages include:

• Cost control: There are no unexpected bills with a prepaid mobiles plan. You can’t spend any more than the recharge allows you to. Once spent, you need to recharge again in order to use your phone (except of 000 numbers).
• Great for young mobile users: Teach your kids how to manage how much they spend through a prepaid mobile plan. Teach them about credit limits and how many calls they can make in a month. Help them to manage how quickly they spend their monthly credit limit without incurring penalties.
• No credit check: Prepaid phones are ideal for anyone with a credit problem (or a negative history with a provider) that makes getting onto a plan difficult.
• Future credit safety: Using a prepaid mobile phone will protect you from a negative mark on your credit history, which could be incurred from running up a bill that you can’t pay.
• Prepaid gives you great value: With prepaid mobile plans becoming so popular, mobile providers are always looking at ways to attract new customers and the deals on offer are getting better all of the time. Bonus credit on recharge, free calls within the network, the higher the recharge, the better the value.
• Flexibility: Recharge what you need. No fixed amount is required. You can vary it by month and how often you expect to use your phone in a given period.
• Little room for misuse: Businesses may wish to provide employees with a phone for limited use, and prepaid mobiles are ideal for preventing misuse of work phones.

Prepaid mobile phones/plans are a great way to take control over your mobile phone finances. They can help you to avoid costly unexpected bills, save your credit rating, and teach your children about budgeting. Compare all prepaid mobile providers at prepaidplans.com.au

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This post was taken from the BigPond Blog.

I’ve been at Telstra for over 15 years and in this time, I’ve never seen a Telstra product or service develop such a large and loyal following like our 1c Text+ offer.

As part of my role, I regularly read the comments posted on the Facebook pages relating to this product, including the 20,000 strong Telstra 1c Text Facebook fan page.

From reading these comments it’s clear that some of you ‘love’ the offer, while others are frustrated that 1c Text+ doesn’t cover all your texting needs.

I’ve also noticed a number of Facebook pages suggesting we are getting rid of the 1c Text+ offer altogether.

Let me assure you that this is not true. In fact, we are actually working on revitalising this offer.

While a lot of the basic features of the 1c Text+ offer will remain the same. – such as the daily 100 text limit – we want to make changes that are aligned with what you want.

For example, we know you’re increasingly using your mobile to browse the internet and access Facebook and Twitter, so we need to provide more included data in our plans.

Plus, we know you’ve got friends on different networks, and we need to make it as easy as possible for you to connect with all your mates without it hurting the hip pocket. .

We want to hear what you want from our 1c Text+ offer… If you’ve got a great idea or really want something included, let us know what you think by completing our short survey.

You can also become a fan of our Telstra Facebook page, where we’ll keep you updated on our plans for the re-fresh and share feedback on your suggestions.

I look forward to reading your feedback.

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According to a recent Roy Morgan survey, the Australian mobile phone industry was measured at 66.4 per cent for the level of customers satisfied with their service provider for the six months to October 2009.

On a service provider basis, it was market leader Telstra that was awarded the lowest ranking, falling even below the Total Industry average with a low 62.3 per cent while Optus did not rate much better with 67.5%. Given that most users are with either Telstra or Optus, this isn’t much of a surprise.

Customer Satisfaction Levels for Service Providers:

• Virgin Mobile – 72.7%
• 3 Mobile – 72.5%
• Vodafone – 69.6%
• Optus – 67.5%
• Telstra – 62.3%

When it came down to customer satisfaction levels between Post Paid and Pre Paid mobiles, it was the Post Paid mobiles that were rated of higher satisfaction levels with 67.5% whereas Pre-Paid mobiles satisfaction levels were at 65.1%.

Virgin was given the highest level of customer satisfaction from Post Paid customers with 79.2%, placing it ahead of the two major mobiles players of Telstra and Optus.

Similar to its total market performance in satisfying its customers, Telstra trailed behind all of the major players with only 62.8% of its post paid customers being “satisfied.”

Post Paid Customer Satisfaction Results:

• Virgin Mobile – 79.2%
• Vodafone – 75.8%
• 3 Mobile – 72.6%
• Optus – 69.4%
• Telstra – 62.8%

The Pre Paid mobile phone market was relatively even in the eyes of customer with no significant difference in the level of customer satisfaction between any of the major players.

Pre Paid Customer Satisfaction Results:

• Vodafone – 67.1%
• Virgin Mobile – 67%
• Optus – 65.8%
• Telstra – 61.6%

Roy Morgan Research stated that there were clear distinctions in the customer satisfaction levels when it came to the various different levels and types of mobiles services.

“It appears that all the major players are performing better in terms of customer satisfaction in the post-paid market than for pre-paid. It remains to be seen whether they can all improve their performance in the pre-paid segments.”

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The newly-launched Everyday Mobile Chatterbox offers the same basic rates as the Everyday plan (15c for texts, 15c per 30 secs and a 15 cent flagfall charge for calls), but your credits only last for 30 days however you do also get bonus credit on each recharge. Purchase a $20, $30 or $50 Chatterbox recharge, and you’ll get $30, $60 or $100. As a launch offer, the $30 plan includes an additional $30 bonus credit. Offer expires 25 April 2010.

Also worth noting is that GPRS upload/download (WAP and Internet via GPRS) rates are significantly cheaper at 15c per 60kb  compared to the $1.32 for the Simple Saver plans. Compare Woolworths Everyday Mobile Plans now.

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