03.How does you provider rate?
International roaming usage notifications
SMS sent within one hour of first
use, with a prompt to disable . Further
alerts every 15MB (about $300) of usage
if customers choose to proceed.
SMS sent to warn customers of
the higher rates that overseas voice calls,
SMS, MMS and data usage may incur.
No automatic warning for
customers who begin using data roaming
when overseas. Customers can sign up to
receive balance alerts that relate to their
nominated spend.
No automatic warning for
customers who begin using data
roaming when overseas. Virgin
provides customers with information
when then manually switch it on.
Domestic usage notification
SMS sent
automatically when
user reaches 80% of
their included monthly value.
SMS sent at 80% and 100% of
monthly value. In coming months, data
will be slowed rather than billed when
a customer exceeds their limit.
No automatic alert – customers
must sign up to receive balance alerts.
No automatic alert – customers
must sign up to receive balance alerts.
Online usage monitoring
Optus, Telstra, Vodafone and Virgin all provide online usage monitoring.
Mobile phone cap plans
CHOICE assessed the popular cap plans with the four carriers and found a number of key differences.
While standard calls hover around the 89-90c mark on all caps and the standard flagfall connection fee remains steady at 39-40c, data and credit inclusion varies widely.
- The Optus TurboTelstra Encore caps both offer customers $1000 worth of call and text credit for $50, as well as a 2G data allowance.
- Vodafone tends to limit the use of flexible credit and allocate a large amount of the recharge value to own-network calls. A $49 recharge on the Vodafone Flexi cap, for example, provides $350 worth of flexible call and text credit, although the remaining $650 credit is reserved for Vodafone to Vodafone calls. This option, however, offers 3G data and unlimited access to social networking sites.
- Although the Virgin $49 cap recharge only offers customer $800 of call and text credit for the $49, slightly less than Optus and Telstra, it does offer free Virgin to Virgin calls. Its cap plan includes 1G data.