Vodafone’s 5G coverage in Sydney is patchy at best.
Image: Vodafone
Vodafone has unveiled its ultra+ plan, which it says will provide customers unlimited data at maximum speeds.
The plan costs AU$85 per month, and covers the telco’s LTE and 5G networks. The company currently describes its 5G footprint as being in “selected areas of major Australian cities”, but is dwarfed by Australia’s other major carriers.
The company is also adding 30GB labelled as “Hotspot data” to the plan for users that tether the phone, and once used up, the tethered data rate falls back to 2Mbps.
“This is an all-you-can eat mobile data plan for just AU$85 per month, it’s that simple,” Vodafone chief marketing officer John Casey said.
“Customers want to set and forget their telco plan, and this gives them unlimited mobile data at maximum available speeds, as well as unlimited standard national calls and texts.”
The plan is available with a handset, or as SIM-only. The company has said there is “absolutely no limit” on the data a customer can use, and any potential fair use policy violations.
In its recent set of yearly earnings, TPG Telecom, the holder of the Vodafone brand in Australia, reported AU$2.6 billion in revenue, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation came in at AU$886 million, and net profit landed on AU$132 million.
For subscriber numbers, TPG saw a decline of 28,000 in postpaid subscriptions to 3.19 million, prepaid experienced the same drop in customers to 1.9 million, and a drop of 8,000 wholesale customers to 15,000. Overall the company has 5.1 million mobile subscribers.
TPG said it was conducting a strategic review of its tower assets, and of its total network of 5,800 rooftops and towers for its mobile network, the company owns passive infrastructure for 1,200 of those sites, as well as over 400 small cells. The company said it was seeking a preliminary assessment and had not made a decision on how to proceed.
The telco recently entered a deal with Dense Air that will see it pick up 3.6GHz spectrum while some 2.6GHz spectrum will flow in the other direction.
“This spectrum acquisition will enhance our 5G customer experience and set us up for future customer growth as we roll out our 5G home internet service to meet customer demand for NBN alternatives,” TPG Telecom CEO Iñaki Berroeta said.
“As this spectrum is immediately adjacent to our existing 5G spectrum holdings, it can be deployed quickly and without significant cost.”
