Optus, owned by a Singapore-based parent company, is informing mobile customers that from May 18 their postpaid “Choice Plus” plans will cost $5 more each month. This marks the second increase in less than a year. This comes after a difficult period for the telco, including a major emergency call outage that triggered multiple government inquiries and follows similar price rises announced recently by a key rival.
Under the new pricing, Optus’ entry-level Choice Plus plan will jump to $60 per month and include 60GB of data, up 10GB. This represents roughly a 15% total rise over the last 12 months. The mid-tier plan will move to $70 for 240GB, up 40GB and the top plan will cost $90 for 480GB, up 80GB, while a $69 promotional offer for 360GB remains unchanged. These increases sit well above annual inflation, which is tracking at about 3.7% and is expected to edge above 4% and echo similar average hikes of around 12% at another major mobile operator.
Industry analysts suggest the Optus changes could reduce customer switching away from competitors that have already lifted prices while giving room for another major carrier to follow with its own increases later this year. However, there also seems to be a growing shift towards lower-cost brands and mobile resellers, with postpaid customer growth across the three big network owners remaining subdued as budget-conscious users seek cheaper alternatives.
The national competition regulator is watching the trend closely, noting that while companies are free to set prices, they must do so independently and need to consider the impact on people relying on lower-cost plans. The watchdog points out that many customers do not fully use their data allowances so larger data bundles may not offset the pain of higher bills and it encourages consumers to compare offers across the market.
Telcos counter that, in real terms, mobile services are still cheaper than a decade ago. They cite data that suggests prices have fallen about 20% after inflation over 11 years while coverage and capacity have expanded dramatically. They argue that the typical plan now includes around 50 times more data than in 2015, even as other essentials like electricity have climbed roughly 70% and that the industry sits in a “capital trap” where heavy spending on networks is not consistently matched by revenue growth.
The latest price moves also land just as the federal government prepares to charge the three major carriers about $7.3 billion to renew their spectrum licences, the radio frequencies that carry mobile calls and data. Operators maintain this bill is several billion dollars too high and warn that higher spectrum fees, on top of annual network investment, Optus alone spends about $1.4 billion a year and has added nearly 700 new 5G sites recently, seem to be locking price increases in as a long-term feature of the market, with the eventual cost likely to be borne by customers.
