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BigPond Drops Price As Unwired Adds Pressure |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Monday, 03 April 2006 |
Milking every last drop of revenue out of its doomed CDMA network, Telstra has dropped the price of its wireless EV-DO network subscriptions nationwide. It also etended the reach of the high speed footprint.
The cuts come into play on April 5th, the same day as Unwired plans to launch its high-speed fixed and mobile wireless broadband offerings in Melbourne’s CBD and inner city suburbs.
The new Telstra pricing, however, applies only to the PC card mobile wireless service from BigPond. The company’s fixed wireless desktop modem service remains unchanged. The company has become increasingly aggressive with its EV-DO pricing which is now priced at a level which SMB and premium residential users can afford.
In addition to the lower pricing, BigPond plans to head off Unwired’s Melbourne launch by offering eligible customers up to 12 months half-priced access and $129 off the price of the BigPond Wireless Broadband Mobile card which carries a Recommended Retail Price of $299.
The subscription services fall into two groups, timed accounts or volume accounts with additional minutes or MB charged separately.
BigPond Group Managing Director, Justin Milne said the hourly plans would increase the appeal of the BigPond Wireless Broadband's Mobile service among small businesses, SOHO's and 'early adopter' consumers with laptop computers.
Although Telstra has a massive advantage of coverage over its competitors with wireless broadband available in all capital cities and a growing number of major regional centres, plus 'twice-dial-up' speeds for 98 % of the population, it is currently using a network which it plans to switch off once the company’s new 3G network is built.
The investment in marketshare it makes now will come at a huge cost to the company as it has promised subscribers will be switched over to the new network when it offers equal or better coverage at no extra cost, via free new mobile cards or modems.
Any increase it makes in subscriber numbers now will increase the cost to migrate them to the new network, but the Telstra leadership can’t afford to give new entrants such as Unwired and iBurst which offer true broadband speeds a head start in customer numbers.
The new BigPond Wireless Broadband Mobile Card plans start with 10 hours access for $29.95 per month, with previous monthly plans now $20 per month cheaper. - Speed: 512/64 Kbps, Usage: 10 hours, Price: $29.95
- Speed: 512/64 Kbps, Usage: 20 hours, Price: $49.95
- Speed: 256/64 Kbps, Usage: 200MB, Price: $49.95 (previously $69.95)
- Speed: 256/64 Kbps, Usage: 1GB, Price: $79.95 (previously $99.95)
- Speed: 512/64 Kbps, Usage: 400MB, Price: $79.95 (previously $99.95)
- Speed: 512/64 Kbps, Usage: 1GB, Price: $109.95 (previously $129.95)
- Excess usage on time based plans, 80c for 5 minutes. Excess usage on MB usage plans 30c
Customers can check Wireless Broadband availability in their region here
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