{"id":48449,"date":"2014-03-13T01:57:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T05:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=48449"},"modified":"2014-03-13T01:57:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T05:57:36","slug":"why-cheaper-mobile-phone-calls-could-be-just-around-the-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2014\/03\/13\/why-cheaper-mobile-phone-calls-could-be-just-around-the-corner\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Cheaper Mobile Phone Calls Could Be Just Around the Corner"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

A new price war<\/strong> is brewing, and it will bring consumers cheaper mobile phone calls and data charges<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The first sign of this war was an announcement by Telstra that it would introduce new low-cost plans.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s biggest telco will now offer customers a budget $55 a month package with extra data, and a range of other cheaper plans.<\/p>\n

It has also cut the penalty for customers who go over the data limit.<\/p>\n

This is good news for all smartphone users in Australia, as it signals that competition is about to heat up and bring consumers lower mobile phone prices. <\/p>\n

Telstra hasn\u2019t had to price their plans aggressively for a number of years \u2014 in fact, this is the first time it has cut prices in three years. Outgoing Vodafone CEO Bill Morrow said it was a sign Telstra was \u2018panicking\u2019.<\/p>\n

The telco giant has never really competed in the budget end of the market, instead going for higher value consumers and business customers. <\/p>\n

While Telstra\u2019s strategy of pursuing profitability over market share has worked so far, its latest cut-price plans show pressure from other telcos \u2014 like Vodafone \u2014 may be forcing Telstra to change tack.<\/p>\n

Vodafone getting its mojo back<\/h2>\n

Vodafone, you may recall, lost millions of customers in 2010. In a lack of foresight that borders on negligence, Vodafone simply didn\u2019t predict the massive uptake of smartphones by Australians, and so didn\u2019t invest in their network.<\/p>\n

As take-up of smartphones soared, Vodafone\u2019s outdated network couldn\u2019t handle the extra data. The system crashed, and customers fled: Vodafone\u2019s customer base fell from 7.5 million users in 2010 to 5 million in 2013.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a slow road back to recovery since then, but finally Vodafone\u2019s fortunes are turning.<\/p>\n

It has invested billions in its network to increase 4G coverage, shifted its call centre from India to Tasmania, and cut its total staffing numbers by 40%.<\/p>\n

As well, Vodafone has aggressively pursued customers by offering more data than its rivals, and cheaper plans.<\/p>\n

And their strategy is working. Last December was the first month Vodafone didn\u2019t lose customers.<\/p>\n

What will Optus do?<\/h2>\n

There is a third player here we haven\u2019t yet mentioned: Optus. <\/p>\n

Signs point to Australia\u2019s second largest telco joining the pricing battle \u2014 especially since it\u2019s started to lose customers. <\/p>\n

Last year Optus reported 57,000 post-paid mobile phone subscribers had left the company in the three months to December 31, and 7000 prepaid.<\/p>\n

Over 12 months, Optus lost 134,000 mobile subscribers with total subscribers falling to 9.43 million.<\/p>\n

By comparison, Telstra added over 700,000 subscribers over the same period. <\/p>\n

Optus has so far committed only to spending more money on marketing and store purchases to arrest this trend.<\/p>\n

But with Telstra and Vodafone competing on price and data, expect Optus to do the same. And that means lower prices.<\/p>\n

Callum Denness
\nContributing Editor, Money Morning<\/em><\/strong>
\nJoin Money Morning on Google+ <\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n


\nBy MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au A new price war is brewing, and it will bring consumers cheaper mobile phone calls and data charges. The first sign of this war was an announcement by Telstra that it would introduce new low-cost plans. Australia\u2019s biggest telco will now offer customers a budget $55 a month package with extra data, and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Why Cheaper Mobile Phone Calls Could Be Just Around the Corner”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}