The average Australian on a postpaid plan will use 11.8GB. And the average Australian on a prepaid plan will use 6.3GB.
With all three MNOs raising their prices in exchange for more data, the deal they are offering isn’t actually beneficial to their customers. This article will examine how much data most people use and why their plans are probably ripping them off.
What’s The Average Data Usage On Prepaid And Postpaid Plans In Australia?
In Australia, we don’t tend to use as much data as many assume.
For postpaid plans, the median data allowance is 35GB per month, but on average, we only use 11.8GB.
And even on prepaid plans, which tend to be cheaper, the median allowance is 30GB, but the average amount people use is just 6.3GB.
We should note here that the data mentioned above is an average, and averages don’t always tell the full picture, as they can merge vastly different people into the same number. So, your grandmother, who almost never uses her data, and your sister, who seems to never not use her data, are both merged into the same average.
However, the fact remains that millions of Australians are paying for data that they don’t use.
In a shop, would you buy something you weren’t going to use? I certainly wouldn’t
Why knowing about data usage is important
Around the world, inflation is reaching some of the highest levels many people have ever seen. It’s creating what’s been dubbed the “cost of living crisis”.
The cost of everything is rising, from our gas and electricity to food, and yes, even our phone bills. All three major mobile phone carriers have put their prices up, and the reasons for this are not entirely agreed upon.
Some say the costs of maintaining the infrastructure have risen, and those costs need to get passed to the consumer. Others say the companies are just exploiting inflation to make a higher profit.
Between 2020-2021, the average price for an entry-rate phone plan rose by $3.50 a month. And some Australians even paid up to 25% more for their plan.
The cost of post-paid plans increased by about 2.9% too!
However, to try and make up for the increased prices, the three providers are also including more 4G data in their deals.
Yet, this isn’t as fair as they’re trying to present it. Yes, you get more data, but if you’re not using the data you’re currently paying for, is it really a good deal to pay more for even more data you won’t use? We don’t think so!
How to figure out how much data you use
Many Australians don’t need as much data as they think they do. But, some Australians do need the amount of data they pay for. How can you tell which category you fall into?
On your mobile phone, if you pull down the top menu, you should see a button that either says “Data” or “Mobile Data”. On many phones; this button has a little globe symbol.
If you hold down this button, you will be taken to a page with a list of options. From this list, select “App data usage” or “Data usage”.
From here, you can view how much data you used each month. If you click on each month, you’ll probably be surprised at just how little data you’ve used.
Most phone plans are just throwing money in the bin
Let’s say once you do the maths, you figure out that you pay for $10 worth of data that you don’t use. This might not seem like a lot, but would you go to an ATM, take out $10, and put it into the bin? We thought not.
Although $10 a month might not seem like a lot, over a year, that’s $120, and over five years, it’s $600. Imagine if someone said to you, “every five years, I put $600 into the bin” you’d think they were crazy!
Even small amounts add up.
How to find a cheaper phone plan with WhatPhone
If you want to get yourself a plan that’s cheaper and won’t have you paying for data you won’t use, use our website!
On our homepage, use the slider next to “Data” to pick how much data you need. Read the “How to figure out how much data you use” section of this article to calculate how much that is.
To find the cheapest deal, select “Price Low to High”. If you’re happy to keep your old phone, we would recommend using a SIM-only deal, as they are much cheaper than contracts with a phone included.
When working out how much data you need, we recommend not just looking at how much data you used last month but how much data you use in an average month or even the month in which you used the most amount of data.
Even in the month you used the most amount of data, you still probably used much less than what you paid for.
Conclusion
Due to inflation, millions of Australians (and around the world, billions of people) have to do what they can to save money. One obvious way to save is to stop paying for things we don’t use. This might sound obvious, but it’s amazing how many people pay for mobile data that they don’t use.
The MNOs have tried to convince us their price rises are justified because they come with rises in data allowances. But, they know just as well as we do that all that means is people will pay more for data they don’t use.
Our advice would be to look at how much data you use and find a cheaper mobile plan that covers the amount of data you use instead of paying for extra data that you don’t use.