Data is the prepaid mobile plan market is sure to be the next battle ground as I have said often in my posts on this and other blogs/sites. It is inevitable and with Sim Only plans already starting to show a flavour for more data eg KISS Mobile, its time to see what our prepaid mobile providers have got to say. Optus is first off the mark with the Optus Turbo Max.

The $100 Turbo Max plan includes 3,000 minutes of calls, 3,000 texts and 2GB of data for each $100 recharge. As is typical with prepaid plans, you have to use that value within 30 days. If you’re a regular user, you could probably get better value on a post-paid plan, but the data inclusion does make this plan stick out a little from the prepaid pack. Compare this to the Optus Turbo Cap and Data Blaster which offer 1GB for $100 and you can see that this offer is targeted at the big data munchers.

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This was taken from the Exetel website this morning.

I read sometime in mid January that Apple was now allowing Skype to be used on the iPhone (via its ‘appstore’ after presumably ending the embargo period imposed by the carriers around the world who were given rights to sell the product. I got my ‘final’ version of Exetel’s MoIP app yesterday on my Nokia N96 and was delighted with it in terms of the few small improvements over the previous versions which I have been successively using for the past year or so. I callled the UK, WA, two rural areas of Australia and a range of 1300 and 1800 numbers all with perfect results. So although I use Exetel’s “standard” mobile service which provides very low cost calls I am now using the lowest cost mobile service I have ever used with absolutely no ‘quality’ difference between it and my previous Optus mobile service.

Not such a big deal you might think – from Fring and Nimbuzz and hundreds of similar apps onward there are any number of such offerings around the world – which is true. But there haven’t been that many with servers/switches based in Australia and they did come with various issues in that we didn’t write the code and therefore have access to it to integrate future applications into it nor did it run on switches that we owned. Anyway I was impressed with it and we will now start promoting it to our current and future wireless users that have compatible hand sets.

Anyone who has read my comments about mobile ‘capped plans’ would know that I have never understood their appeal and I don’t wish to waste time re-expressing my bewilderment about that marketing concept and why it works. I do wonder whether 10 cent unlimited time calls to wire lines, 10 cents a minute calls to mobiles and 5 cent SMS will do anything to affect how the carriers see future pricing once/if MoIP becomes as established in the mobile user’s mind as VoIP is now established in the wire line user’s mind? As wire line call charges are progressively seen as irrelevant and expensive by telephone handset users and are forcing Telstra to contemplate how to deal with that ongoing situation what will happen to the mobile carrier’s future revenue plans if they are based on ever increasing call revenues?

I am a very modest maker of outbound mobile callers and I never use SMS but my modest mobile bill would drop by 2/3 using MoIP with very little increase in the data component of my monthly charges. So, as usual in my direct way, I can’t see any reason why any buyer of an Exetel wireless phone plan for use in a mobile hand set wouldn’t also buy an Exetel MoIP service plus an Exetel SMS service. What would be the point of paying double or treble for such services if there is a simple alternative? The mobile carriers saw this issue very clearly in the ‘early days of HSPA’ and managed, at that time, to get the hand set makers to ‘disable’ the use of MoIP under the threat of not buying their gigantic volumes from them – but that has long been discontinued. So if the carriers can’t prevent end users preferring MoIP over their ‘capped’ plans what will they do if call mobile call revenues go the same way wire line call revenues? I have no idea and have more than enough problems of my own to give it any further thought.

I suppose the other issue in this general scenario is the ‘threat’ to the mobile carrier’s ‘call’ revenues of SMS over IP at sub ten cents per message from many sources (Exetel offers it for 5 cents). From what I read the mobile carriers make a large percentage of their mobile profits from SMS with it not being uncommon to see charges in excess of 20 cents per SMS. I don’t use SMS but I have tried Exetel’s version and it seems no different to the ‘embedded’ SMS provided as a standard service on my Exetel/Optus service. I think combining SMS over IP with MoIP would be a very compelling offering to many user types….from school children on upwards.

You can view Exetel’s mobile phone offers here. They are all monthly no contract plans.

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Telstra has launched a new range of pre-paid mobile broadband plans. The new plans offer much better recharge value and have longer expiry periods.

“With Telstra pre-paid there are no bills or fixed term contracts so it’s a great choice for people who want to keep track of what they’re spending month to month,” Ms Glenice Maclellan, Acting Group Managing Director at Telstra Consumer said.

“We only charge customers for every kilobit of data they use so they can rest assured they’re only paying for what they use within the recharge period, giving them greater control and transparency.”

Recharge prices will from tomorrow be updated to the following. $40 will buy 1GB of data, increased from 300MB, and $60 will buy3GB of data – up from 1GB. Expiry times have also been increased – 3GB & 4GB of data will now expire after 90 and 180 days respectively.

You can check the details out at prepaidplans.com.au

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As I said in an earlier post, over the weekend I visited several telco stores at our local shopping centre to find out just how easy it is to unlock a usb modem and buy another providers sim card to use it with. This is the feedback I received.

3 Mobile – the guys at the stand told that it was possible but they had never done it before. The recommended I bring in my laptop and give it a try. They just couldn’t guarantee that it would work. They said that I needed to ensure that the usb modem had actually been unlocked. What I forgot to ask was what was involved in unlocking a 3 Mobile USB modem.

Vodafone – told me that you couldn’t unlock your Vodafone modem. And if I wanted to use their recharge vouchers that I needed to buy one of their USM modems through which to use it.

Optus – told me that they had not unlocked a modem before and said that at a retail store level it was complicated. The store was actually a franchise store, so maybe I needed to speak to tech support person at Optus rather than a store. If you visit the Optus site though, it says that that modems are locked for 12mths and you need to pay a fee of $100 to unlock them. Remember that this is a fee not a recharge voucher.

Virgin – these where the only guys that gave me a confident answer that they could unlock a Virgin USM modem to be used on another providers plan. They also said that Virgin plans don’t charge you a fee to unlock the modem, you simply need to recharge atleast $80 on your new service.

So where does that leave us. If you want an unlocked USB modem, then Optus, 3 Mobile and Virgin are where to go. Optus will charge you $100 for the pleasure. 3 Mobile can’t guarantee if it will work or not and Virgin say Yes thanks we can unlock and we won;t charge you a fee.

I will do some more diging around 3 Mobile to what what else I can discover. Visit us at prepaidplans.com.au to find out how much buying a prepaid broadband sim card.

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The Optus Prepaid Mobile team have been busy this year. They have just launched a new prepaid mobile text plan called Optus Turbo Text which allows you to text for free to 5 numbers on any network if you recharge atleast $30 (credit lasts for 30 days).

This new release is hot off the tracks of the new International Calls 4 Less that was released late last year.

How good is it? If you mainly do texting then its great, but if you are also looking to make calls with it, then 78c per minute isn’t that great at all. Its the charging per minute that I don’t like. This plan sounds very similar to a service they were offering on their low value contract plans some time ago (I actually considered it for my wife). It offered the ability to make unlimited calls (not sure about the TXT) to a selection of numbers that you pre-nominated on your plan. I think it was called family and friends or something like that.

What this plan does do however, is highlight the growing push by Providers to get you to build a network of friends using the same Provider. Vodafone do it with Free Talk time, Crazy John’s and Girl Talk do it with free talk and text to anyone on the same network 24/7. Even Telstra do it with their 1c text plan to other Telstra mobiles.

What the Optus plan is trying to do is a little smarter. Its actually trying to do the recruiting very subtly. If you start this plan and nominate your 5 friends. Eventually they will know about it and get their 5 friends and so on.

You can compare the best in prepaid Txting plans here.

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Unlocking your mobile broadband USB modem has to be the most confusing part of the mobile broadband service. Through the PrepaidPlans chat service, I have been asked countless times “can I use my existing Optus USB to start a prepaid mobile broadband plan with another provider”.  I actually wrote a blog post about this a few months ago, after visiting a local shopping centre and asking staff at the 3 Mobile and Vodafone stores about what was required if I wanted to unlock the usb drive I had purchased from them.

The answers were pretty much No, there is no unlocking and if you wanted to use another provider’s sim card, you would need to purchase a USB modem from them. That was certainly the statements I received from both 3 Mobile and Vodafone staff.

Following these interactions, I checked on their website and saw some conflicting information, particularly in relation to using an existing USB on the 3 Mobile network.

So, where to from here. A task I have given myself for next week is to visit Optus, Vodafone, Virgin and 3 Mobile and Telstra and once again get some feedback on what type of USB can I BYO.

Virgin provide some details about unlocking your E5832 broadband USB here. These are the Virgin BYO modem requirements:

Before you choose to BYO modem, check the list below.

• Type of Modem: It can be a USB modem, wireless data card or inbuilt modem.
• Frequency: Ideally both 900MHz and 2100MHz, to take advantage of the Optus Dual Band network, although most metro areas are covered by 2100MHz.
• Network Unlocked: If you’re locked to another network, you’ll need to contact your previous service provider to unlock it.
• SIM card slot: So you can plug in our Virgin Mobile Broadband SIM card.

BYO Modem Requirements from Optus are as follows:

Optus has approved the following modems as being suitable for use with the Optus Pre-Paid Wireless Broadband Service. Huawei E160E USB Modem, Huawei E220 USB Modem, Huawei E960 Wireless Gateway Modem, Huawei E870 PC, Express Data Card, Option GT Max Data Card, Option PC Express Data Card. If you choose to connect to the service using your own modem, Optus may not be able to provide you technical support for that particular modem and reserves the right to refer you to the modem manufacturer for technical assistance at your own expense.

So,  before you consider moving to another provider, check with the provider of your existing USB modem what you need to do to unlock it first. Then depending on how much and what effort is involved to unlock it, you can either proceed or decide it isn’t worth the effort and simply buy another USB stick. Given the giveaway prices these days, the later is looking a lot easier.

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The Seven Network is to roll out a 4G wireless broadband network across Australia, to position itself as a leading internet player.

Vivid Wireless, the company set up by Seven to handle the network, will spend $14m extending the service to five mainland capital cities following an initial launch in Perth in March.

The 4G service will firstly cover densely populated areas of around 1.25m people, with the service spreading to within 5km of selected universities in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane, allowing Seven to stake a claim in the future of online video streaming.

Seven already has a wireless presence in Sydney and Melbourne via Unwired, a company it acquired in 2007.

Speaking at the Broadband and Beyond Conference in Sydney, Ryan Stokes, chairman of Vivid Wireless and son of Seven executive chairman Kerry, stressed the importance of providing content to consumers.

“Today for media companies content creation is more important than ever,” he said. “The enabling technologies mean, it is no longer enough to simply own the rights; media companies must create the content to ensure better control on value realisation.

“Vivid Wireless is not entering the market to be a “me too” wireless player. We intend to offer value points that eclipse competitive wireless offerings; and even some fixed line offerings.”

Stokes said that the service, initially at least, would not target handheld devices, saying that it was focused on “ ‘mobile computing’, not ‘mobile communications’”.

Acknowledging the threat to free-to-air TV posed by internet TV and pay TV, Stokes said: “We are constantly feeling the impacts of change. Technology is continuing to reshape consumer habits and expectations through empowerment and choice.

“Content is at the centre of the evolution as the driver for the adoption of new technologies. For content creators this is the principal opportunity that needs to be realised across multiple platforms.”

Stokes added that Seven would “very soon” be launching its latest digital TV channel and also said that it would be “very interesting” to see how the mobile networks would cope with the extra data demands of the iPhone.

Martin Mercer, CEO of Vivid Wireless, added: “We are delighted with the speed and ease with which we have established our Perth operation, which we believe will take the city by storm with our affordable pricing and very fast broadband speeds.

“Our research shows there is very strong appetite amongst computer users for very fast speeds and wireless access and we are very confident of achieving strong market shares among business people, students, professionals and people in the home.”

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My Mobile Watchdog is a new safety service aimed at parents so that they can monitor their child’s mobile phone usage. It allwos them to receive instant alerts about unsafe activity, including cyber bullying and contact with unknown (numbers) people. According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, 22 per cent of girls and 15 per cent of boys aged between eight and 11 own a mobile phone.

However most children are not content with just a run-of-the-mill handset, and demand the latest technology that gives immediate access to the internet. This usage is often unsupervised and can create a form of social underground that many parents don’t know exists.

My Mobile Watchdog logs and stores copies of all mobile phone activity, including text messages, phone calls, e-mails, picture messages.

The service was recently launched in Australia and has received quite a bit of publicity. It costs $14.95 per month and comes with unlimited alerts to your nominated email accounts and full access to the My Mobile Watchdog website.  Parents can access their e-mail at any time to see if alerts have been sent regarding unauthorised or unapproved contact with their child’s mobile phone.

Learn more here.

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My prediction is that prepaid mobile broadband USB sticks will be given away for free sometime in 2010. Either Optus, Vodafone or 3 Mobile will give their USB stick sway for nothing. This will be the ultimate in this market share tussle that is going on that the moment and has driven prices to extraordinary levels in just a few weeks. Each time I check they are dropping by $10 or $20. Optus o/night reduced their prepaid USB modem price from $79 to $69, this is the lowest it has ever been and it is still February.

Its a grab for market share as each provider is trying to get their USB in your hands so as you begin to contemplate mobile broadband as an option or a supplement to your fixed line internet, you will use them.

The funny thing is that there are several providers like Exetel for instance that resell the Optus range so, even if you buy an Optus USB for $69 you can (after paying your lockout fee) move to another provider.

Compare the latest prepaid mobile broadband prices here.

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The NetComm t1 Travel Router needs no power or Internet cables and can keep multiple wireless devices connected to 3G networks on the fly ­ in the car, office, hotel room or walking down the street. It runs off an internal battery, leaving mobile users free of the need to set up cables in temporary situations. The $199 pocket-sized t1 allows connection via ADSL and Wi-Fi through the use of a 3G USB modem allowing for speeds of up to 150Mbps.

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