Australian SMS Prices Reach Parity

Vodafone Australia has said that it will raise it's SMS charges to US$0.14 per message to match price rises from Telstra and Optus, resulting in all three networks having the same headline price for sending SMS's. The price rises come into effect from the beginning of August and have sparked calls from local consumer groups into why all three networks have the same pricing plan for their SMS services. Telstra originally raised its prices last November, with Optus following suit in February.

In politics, the opposition communications spokesman Lindsay Tanner told the Sunday Times, "I would like to see the Australian Competition and Consumer Consumer examine the pattern of identical price rises in the SMS area," adding, "There's no justification for increasing prices. If anything, they should be diminishing because we're now seeing astronomical numbers of people using an established service."'"

Posted to the site on 22nd July 2002