Vodafone wants to sell you NBN real bad (at the right speed)
The telco really wants to be your new NBN provider, so it's trying to sweeten the deal with plenty of customer service perks.
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Vodafone wants to hook you up.
Vodafone certainly wants to be seen as different when it comes to selling the NBN .
The telco, which will start selling NBN services by the end of the year, has now announced it wants to make sure customers are getting the right speeds for their needs, and they promise to speed test your connection once you're hooked up just to make sure.
As more Australians get connected to the NBN, Vodafone's focus on speed satisfaction is timely. The ACCC just yesterday issued guidelines to ISPs about advertising real-world NBN speeds to ensure customers have a realistic expectation of what they'll get when they migrate to the NBN.
Tuesday we learned that Vodafone will be advertising three "simplified" plans with bonus mobile data.
Plan | NBN Wholesale speed | Data cap | Bonus mobile data | Price |
Essentials | 25Mbps | Unlimited | 2GB | AU$80 |
Essentials Plus | 50Mbps | Unlimited | 3GB | AU$95 |
Premium | 100Mbps | Unlimited | 3GB | AU$110 |
Vodafone will also offer a 12Mbps plan (with 2GB bonus mobile data) for AU$70, but it's not promoting this too heavily. That's because the telco says too many Aussies are getting pushed onto slow plans when they switch to the NBN, only to be disappointed.
"Incumbent telcos are very much motivated to migrate customers to lower end plans," said General Manager of Fixed Broadband Matthew Lobb. "The market is essentially delivering more of the same."
Vodafone is claiming its service will be different:
- Three speed tiers matching NBN's 25Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps plans
- Month-to-month or 24-month contract
- Speed test to check advertised vs. actual speed, 15 days after activation
- Option to change speed tiers once per billing cycle for no fee
- Opt out 30 days after activation without cancellation fee
- Guaranteed 4G connection while you wait to connect to NBN (and during recognised outages)
- Free Wi-Fi Hub modem on 24-month contract (AU$150 on month-to-month plan)
Vodafone says it's in the final stages of NBN testing and will soon launch a staged trial, starting with "friendly customers." At launch the service will be available in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong, with the promise to expand.
Vodafone is certainly promising a lot of difference for a telco that's new to fixed-line broadband. The only thing we need to know is when they're actually launching. Watch this space.
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