It’s not only Telstra that believes streaming will be big, and if you’re on Optus, you’re about to get more mobile entertainment without as much money being handed over.
The telco has this week confirmed that postpaid mobile subscribers will be able to get free data on a variety of movie, music, and TV stremaing services, provided they already have the accounts as those services, because access is the only part of the equation that isn’t free.
“Our customers tell us they want the freedom to watch the latest TV show or listen to their favourite band, on the go, said Tim Cowan, Head of Mobile Marketing at Optus, adding “but we know that fear of using too much data is the biggest obstacle to making mobile streaming part of their daily entertainment habits”.
“A customer who watches an hour of video content every day can use more than 10 gigs of a data a month,” he said.
To ease that burden somewhat, Optus is adding packs dependent on how much data you think you’ll be streaming, alleviating the stress and meaning you may not be forced to pay as much monthly.
For instance, if you know you’re watching a lot of Netflix or Presto — streaming TV services — you can pay an extra $10 per month to get unlimited mobile TV streaming on a variety of Optus plans up to $100. Once you hit that $100 per month price for your current plans, it’s included, so you won’t have data concerns for binge watching all of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” or “Bojack Horseman” (or anything else on the service, for that matter).
Free data for Optus Sport’s Premier League is also included at the $85 per month price, but if you use a plan below it, it’s an extra $15 per month for free sporting data.
Regardless of which plan you find yourself on, you’ll get free data for streaming music services, getting Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Google Play Music downloads for free.
Interestingly, there’s no Apple Music, though a representative for Optus confirmed to Pickr that “we look to work with a range of streaming partners and from time-to-time will add new partners”, adding that Optus was “not ruling any one music streaming partner in or out”.
The addition of free streaming to postpaid joins what Optus set up for its prepaid users earlier in the year, with no data costs for the same music services if you happened to be on a prepaid service and not a postpaid one.
With streaming data costs dropped across many of the services Aussies are using, Optus hopes to bring more people over to its network.
“With Optus offering more entertainment options to customers than ever before, they will be able to enjoy the best in TV, movies and music, streamed data-free, wherever they may be using Optus mobile network,” said Cowan.
“Netflix and Presto are just the start of our Mobile TV platform. We look forward to adding even more of the video content that our customers know and love over the coming months. We’re working closely with a range of Australian and global content providers to ensure we can give customers choice when it comes to data-free streaming,” he said.
