One Mobile is not new to the mobile market. Within the call aggregation market they are one of Optus’ biggest clients. Might not mean much to the everyday customer but it does say that they do understand mobile and have their eggs in a few baskets ensuring they can provide services beyond the now.
Their market is the under 25 prepaid mobile phone user. Facebook, Texting, regular contact with a circle of friends that is who One Mobile is after. The range launched yesterday aims to fulfill a void in the market where customers are looking for all of the facts with less of the confusing terms. I think they have a point here. Whilst some may see it as a controversial name, Cherry Popper is your sim starter kit and comes with no credit. You can then recharge with a $19 or $29 Cap each giving you $100 and $200 in calls respectively. With the $19 Cap you get about 45, 2 minute calls plus unlimited Facebook usage. Texts are 30c each and all credit lasts for 30 days. You also have unlimited calls to One Mobile.
If you want cheaper calls, you can then look at the two Low Rider recharge options. A 2 minute call will cost you 90c but the credit with a $10 recharge is just $10. Texts are 20c and credit lasts for 30 days. Data for this recharge options is 50c/MB GPRS billed per 60KB. Unsure why this option wasn’t given 30c/MB like the Caps. 50c for me is on the high side given this recharge option is at the cheaper end of the scale when it comes to pricing.
For those who text all day and night, you have the two Ninja Thumb options. There is a $20 and $30 recharge. Texts are just 1c each so you can go a little nuts with these options. Data is 30c/MB, you have unlimited access to Facebook and a two minute call with cost you $1.40. This plan offers a good combination of online and text options.
Beyond these recharge options you move into the more premium end. TT’s give you minutes rather than call costs. $10 gives you 20 minutes plus 20 minutes to One Mobile, the $20 recharge increases the minutes to 50 and $30 to 100 minutes. Bonus text is also available as is a small amount of data. Unlimited Facebook would have been great here. Credit lasts for 30 days except for the $30 recharge which lasts for 180 days.
The final recharge options is Da Bomb which at $50 gives you 2GB data, unlimited social media, 3000 minutes talk time and 2000 text. More than what most people will need in 30 days.
Zac from One Mobile tells me that he has done his research and these are the combinations and pricing that customers are looking for. There are certainly some good options here but time will show which market is actually drawn to these plans.
One differentiating factor to consider is that recharging will be able to be completed directly from your phone via the One Mobile App. No mucking around with convenience stores etc. They are also looking to partner with vending machine operators for distribution of the starter kits.
