About a month ago, Vodafone launched a new MVNO with a difference, felix. Rather than including a fixed data cap, felix's sole plan had unlimited data capped to speeds of 5Mbps. However, the telco has today increased that cap to 20Mbps.
The boost in speed will surely be welcome news for felix customers, and feels like a much more reasonable speed limit. For comparison, a typical 4G service should be able to achieve speeds of over 50Mbps in metro areas, so you're not sacrificing anywhere near as much speed to get unlimited data.
In our own testing, we found 5Mbps to be somewhat of a frustrating experience. While streaming from Netflix and scrolling through socials was fine, websites loaded noticeably slower and downloading apps on the go was all but impossible. The 20Mbps speed limit will definitely help with app downloads, and should make felix's plan more viable for those wanting to use their phone as a portable hotspot.
When asked about the change, General Manager for Business Development Paul Tierney said speeds were increased to improve customer experience.
"Customers have loved the experience of endless data at speeds up to 5Mbps, however we want to constantly challenge ourselves on improving the experience of our customers and give them confidence that everything they need to do will be covered by the felix plan," said Tierney.
When felix first launched last month, Tierney said that a large cross section of the population could do "everything they need with [5Mbps]".
"We're confident we've landed on a good balance," said Tierney, speaking to WhistleOut at the time. "As of today there are a large amount of customers that this plan works for".
Even with the new 20Mbps cap, felix's plan is still billed at $35 per month. For comparison, you could get 50GB per month on Vodafone (thanks to a promo) for the same kind of money. It ends up becoming a question of if you're okay with slightly slower (but still reasonably zippy) data or if you'd like faster connectivity.
In addition to unlimited data, felix's other point of difference is that it claims to be an environmentally conscious telco. It says it will offset 100% of the electricity used to power the business with investments in renewable energy certificates from renewable projects in Australia, and offset all other emissions in certified Carbon Offset projects. In addition, felix says it will plan one tree per customer, per month, with the goal of planting one million trees in its first year.
Alex Choros
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