Optus increases prices and data for postpaid mobile customers

Optus has refreshed its mobile plans, increasing their price by $4 per month across the board. Optus' cheapest plan now starts at $49 per month with 30GB of data, up from $45 per month with 20GB of data.

Here's a full comparison of the old and new plans:

Optus has also rejigged its Optus Plus Promo plan. It still comes with 500GB, but you're now looking at $69 per month for your first six months, and $119 per month thereafter. This offer runs until August 4.

It's also worth remembering that Optus mobile plans will no longer include free Optus Sport access as of August 1. Customers who want to keep subscribing to the streaming service will be billed $6.99 per month.

Here are Optus' new plans in full:

And for comparison, here is a selection of plans powered by the Optus network with at least 20GB:

Existing customers will be impacted by these changes. Under its terms of service, Optus is able to increase a customer's bill or move them to a new plan with 30 days of notice. Customers who signed up for an Optus postpaid plan from May 2021 onward will soon be moved on to a new plan.

This will also affect customers paying off a phone on a plan. This is because all local telcos now treat handset repayments and plans fees as two separate billing items. While the plans don't have any lock-in - you can leave at any time by paying out the remainder of your phone - you can still be subject to price increases on the SIM part of your plan.

An Optus spokesperson pointed to network investments and inflation as drivers behind the price rise.

"Our ongoing investment in expanding and upgrading services, the growing data demands on our network, and increasing costs of goods and services, means we’ve made the difficult decision to increase the price on selected mobile plans," said the spokesperson.

"While we are raising costs, we haven’t forgotten about customers’ needs for more data, so we’re giving them just that with our new mobile plans, so they can do more of the things they love."

The news follows Optus increasing prices for customers on older plans at the start of the month, as well as Telstra upping Upfront mobile plan prices. In addition, Telstra has said it will increase its mobile plan pricing between $2 and $4 per month in July each year, in line with CPI.

Vodafone is the only major mobile provider to have not increased its prices this year. While a spokesperson wouldn't comment on future pricing potential, they said the brand will "continue to take a leadership position in providing value to Australian customers".

“As customers adjust to the increasing costs of living due to inflationary pressures and rising interest rates, we are the only player concentrated on being a simple, great value provider of telecommunications services," said the spokesperson.