Optus is pushing to capture more of the Australian pre-paid mobile market, introducing new plans based on only charging for days subscribers use their phones.
The SingTel subsidiary said its new Prepaid Daily plans start at A$1 ($0.93) per day of use. They will be available to customers from August 11.
Subscribers can recharge from A$10 to A$100, and the credit will last for six months before expiring, or roll over if recharged before the expiry date.
The A$2 per day Prepaid Daily Plus plan meanwhile comes with unlimited standard national calls and text and 500MB of data allocation. Excess data will be charged at A$2 for 200MB for the base plans and A$2 for 500MB for the Plus plans.
“We’re giving customers the freedom to decide how they use their credit, based on their usage. Every day is a new day – if you don’t use, you don’t pay,” Optus vice president for mobile marketing Ben White said.
The announcement concludes with a warning that if mobile apps download data in the background it could trigger a charge for that day even if the subscriber does not otherwise use the handset. Optus will need to make this clear to the public, or it could have some angry customers on its hands.