13 November 2012

The great data charge rip-off

WHILE our phones are getting smarter, Australians are losing out as the major mobile carriers offer contracts providing less data at greater cost, a consumer group has warned.

Elise Davidson, a spokeswoman for the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, said advances in mobile phone features meant people were using more data-hungry services, such as video calls and streaming, which put pressure on network infrastructure and had caused congestion issues.

Ms Davidson said one response the carriers had to cutting congestion had been to offer contracts that dropped data limits while increasing the monthly cost.

She said Optus was the biggest offender, but Telstra and Vodafone had made similar moves.

"They want to slow down the amount of data that people are using and also pick up some extra data charges which they can put back into their network," Ms Davidson said.

She said one of the biggest issues facing consumers was the confusion over mobile phone plans and estimating how much data they needed.

She said many customers underestimated the data they would use and were hit with hefty extra data bills at the end of the month.

Other customers played it safe by going for a contract with a large data cap but then not using their allotted amount.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority reported Australians fork out $1.5 billion a year more than they need because they choose the wrong phone plan.

Optus marketing managing director Michael Smith said changes in Optus plans reflected a usage study which showed its customers were using, on average, less than 500MB a month.

"We recognise that some customers may use more data as their situations change and to combat bill shock, we've rolled out usage alerts, across these plans, that will help customers control their spend," he said.

"Customers will receive an SMS alert when they've reached 50 per cent, 85 per cent and 100 per cent of their data usage."

 heraldsun.com.au 5 Nov 2012

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