Vodafone has announced a flash deal for switching customers, offering a free month for anyone switching to a Vodafone post-paid phone or mobile broadband plan.
This switching offer will not last for long, with plans to wrap it up on March 29, giving new customers just a week to get on board.
Such a short term offer might seem unusual, but it comes on the day Telstra suffered its fourth major network outage in the past two months, leading some to speculate that it is Vodafone’s way of rubbing salt in the wound. Telstra’s markets its network as ‘the network without equal’, but Vodafone is obviously betting that Telstra customer might have already starting feeling like they could get a better deal elsewhere.
“We know how important it is to stay connected, so if you’re having trouble with your network, we invite you to come on over to Vodafone. We’re the only Australian carrier to offer a network happiness guarantee, making the switch to Vodafone worry-free,” said Vodafone Sales Director Ben Macintosh in a statement.
“We know ‘free data’ days are all the rage right now, which is why Vodafone offers two months of unlimited data to post-paid voice customers when they join or upgrade,” he said, referencing the free data day Telstra is offering customers on April 3 as an apology for a nationwide outage earlier in the month.
The two months of unlimited data is not part of the switching deal, but is Vodafone’s ongoing Data Workout offer. This entitles all new post-paid customers to use as much data as they need in the first two months to help gauge data usage going forward.
Vodafone No Contract Plans
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#1
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Vodafone
$58 Small SIM Only Plan
$45.00/mth
Min. cost $45
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#2
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Vodafone
$68 Medium SIM Only Plan
$50.00/mth
Min. cost $50
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#3
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Vodafone
$78 Large SIM Only Plan
$55.00/mth
Min. cost $55
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Not the coverage but the price
This string of Telstra network outages is problematic for Telstra’s image, but not only because it challenges Telstra’s ‘network without equal’ marketing angle. In fact, you could argue that the statement holds true until one of the competing networks can cover as much ground as the Telstra network does.
The real problem is that Telstra customers pay a premium for these connections. Telstra’s plan have always been more expensive than its rivals, and where the price is the same, Telstra’s plans are far less generous.
Network outages are part and parcel of mobile connectivity, but four major outages in two months suggests a problem larger than human error, and exposes a lack of failsafes sufficient to deal with major hiccups.
Telstra customers seem content to ride out this wave of bad luck for now — we haven’t seen any significant trend away from Telstra in the WhistleOut search traffic yet — but when you are paying twice as much for your phone plan, but receiving sub-par service, it will only be a matter of time before some Telstra customers jump ship.
Joseph Hanlon
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