Why have ADSL2+ plans on Optus become so expensive?

[autron]

Last year $55 per month with Exetel would would get an ADSL2+ including phone plan with 8GB peak and 60GB off-peak downloads. Plus it had 100 Voip calls included at no extra cost. (also some free SMS and Fax).

Now $55 gets basically nothing except email addresses. The Z/20INCTEL is $55 per month but it has no download allowance at all.

I believe that there was a statement that the reason for the price rises was that, while bandwidth costs have come down, the average amount used by customers has gone up, making the overall cost of providing services greater.

Fine. More people started downloading more, and more people managed to use Voip than expected. However, Z/20INCTEL comes with NO included allowances at all and yet it is still $55 per month.

So why the price rises then? There needs to be a usable starting plan back under $60. Not just one starting at $65 per month.

[James]

Last year $55 per month with Exetel would would get an ADSL2+ including phone plan with 8GB peak and 60GB off-peak downloads. Plus it had 100 Voip calls included at no extra cost. (also some free SMS and Fax).

Now $55 gets basically nothing except email addresses. The Z/20INCTEL is $55 per month but it has no download allowance at all.

I believe that there was a statement that the reason for the price rises was that, while bandwidth costs have come down, the average amount used by customers has gone up, making the overall cost of providing services greater.

Fine. More people started downloading more, and more people managed to use Voip than expected. However, Z/20INCTEL comes with NO included allowances at all and yet it is still $55 per month.

So why the price rises then? There needs to be a usable starting plan back under $60. Not just one starting at $65 per month.

$65.00 for line rental, and broadband is a great deal, few others come close to our offerings.

[autron]

I don't want to discuss the merit of the Z/21IncTel plan but I will point out that even from within Exetel's own offerings:

Z/21BYO Line $35 plus Telstra Homeline Complete with voicemail $27.95 = $62.95
Z/21IncTel via Optus $65 plus voicemail $3 = $68

This is a $5 difference and my Optus phoneline has experienced a number of outages over the last year while my neighbour's Telstra line has worked at the same time.

There are other phoneline plans which are cheaper than the Telstra one and a few combinations that will give phone and an actual download allowance for around $55pm.

Z/21IncTel might be a fine plan for those that use its off-peak allowance but not everyone does and I think there should be a plan cheaper than it that has an actual download allowance.

Could you please comment on why the Optus plans suddenly became so much more expensive?

[ForumAdmin]

Could you please comment on why the Optus plans suddenly became so much more expensive?

We wanted to stop losing money on supplying them.

We have asked Optus for lower pricing on ADSL2 and its associated connection bandwidth costs and unless we get that we will not be able to offer Optus plans at lower prices.

[thomashouseman]

I don't want to discuss the merit of the Z/21IncTel plan but I will point out that even from within Exetel's own offerings:

Z/21BYO Line $35 plus Telstra Homeline Complete with voicemail $27.95 = $62.95
Z/21IncTel via Optus $65 plus voicemail $3 = $68

This is a $5 difference and my Optus phoneline has experienced a number of outages over the last year while my neighbour's Telstra line has worked at the same time.

There are other phoneline plans which are cheaper than the Telstra one and a few combinations that will give phone and an actual download allowance for around $55pm.

Z/21IncTel might be a fine plan for those that use its off-peak allowance but not everyone does and I think there should be a plan cheaper than it that has an actual download allowance.

Could you please comment on why the Optus plans suddenly became so much more expensive?

Yeah but once on Optus to switch back to Telstra lines takes several weeks and total disconnection of phone lines not to mention the loss of your port if the exchange is full.

[Spectator]

$65.00 for line rental, and broadband is a great deal, few others come close to our offerings.

Actually, I think there are a number of providers below or at this level and several more that "come close". That being said I agree that it is more a case of old plans being cheap than the new plans being expensive.

We wanted to stop losing money on supplying them.

We have asked Optus for lower pricing on ADSL2 and its associated connection bandwidth costs and unless we get that we will not be able to offer Optus plans at lower prices.

Good luck Hopefully you can secure pricing that allows you to make money and still deliver on your original objective of providing services at a lower cost than all other suppliers.

[autron]

Now $55 gets basically nothing except email addresses. The Z/20INCTEL is $55 per month but it has no download allowance at all.

There needs to be a usable starting plan back under $60.

Well I just noticed that the Z/xxINCTEL plans have been rejigged so now everything I wrote in this thread is superseded. The Optus plans look very good value now! The Z/20INCTEL plan at $55 now has a 5gb peak download allowance plus has the offpeak allowance added and looks really good as an entry plan.

Thank you for continuing to offer great value.