Optus takes a page out of Telstra’s playbook
Adding entertainment inclusions to phone plans is nothing new to Optus. The telco offer a variety of entertainment inclusions, ranging from sports to movies to television shows. Now, Optus also offer 6 or 12 months of free Apple Music on select plans, although you still have to pay for the data you spend on the service.
Apple Music has been available on Telstra for a while now. Although other music streaming apps exist, and can offer the same or similar music streaming experience, Apple Music is extremely popular. Having access to a subscription on the platform means having access to over 50 million songs, and music fans obviously find that attractive.
Optus, although already offering several entertainment inclusions to its customers, have now followed Telstra’s lead with the Apple Music offer. Considering the popularity of the music platform, Optus decision here is a good one.
Optus now offer its postpaid customers 6 or 12 months of Apple Music for free. Source.
However, Optus’ offer leaves some things to be desired. When compared to Telstra’s, Optus’ Apple Music offer seems a bit weak. It’s only available on some of their plans and you still have to spend your data.
Optus’ Apple Music offer in a nutshell
- Available to both new and existing customers.
- Existing customers would have to upgrade to eligible plans.
- Only available on postpaid plans.
- 12-month trial offer only available on costlier plans, starting at $50 per month.
- Cheaper plans get a 6-month trial offer.
- After trial period is over, you will be billed $11.99 per month.
- You spend your plan data to use the service, both before and after the trial period.
Compared to Telstra
While this offer is good for Optus’ postpaid customers, it leaves its other customers with nothing to look forward to. Telstra, on the other hand, offers Apple Music to its prepaid, postpaid, and broadband customers.
Further, Telstra also offer Apple Music as a data-free streaming service. This means that, unlike Optus, Telstra customers can stream as much Apple Music tunes as they like without spending their plan data. This only applies to streaming, though, and not any of the other features on the Apple Music platform.
Optus’ lack of data-free streaming reduces the value of its offer
At a time when Australians are demanding fair treatment from their telcos, Optus’ entertainment plans would certainly look a lot more attractive if they were data-free. As stated, the competition — Telstra, especially — offer such data-free entertainment as phone plan inclusions, and this tends to reduce the value and competitive nature of Optus’ new offer.
Telstra isn’t alone in the data-free arena, however. Even some smaller companies — MVNOs — such as OVO and Boost Mobile also offer data-free entertainment streaming. In fact, with Boost Mobile, you can also stream Apple Music data free but you have to buy an Apple Music subscription or have an existing, active one.
Considering these other available telcos’ data-free features, Optus’ offer loses some bite. Streaming music consumes around 50 to 100Mb per hour. This means you’ll have to buy a huge data plan with Optus if you want to taking advantage of Apple Music. And with the cheapest plan for the 12-month free trial eligibility costing $50 per month with an 80GB data inclusion, you certainly have to aim high to enjoy Optus’ Apple Music offer.
Streaming music consumes a lot of data. If you’re a typical streamer, you can expect to spend 3GB of data per day on music. Source.
Final words
Optus’ Apple Music offer is a good step. Apple Music is one the most – if not the most – popular music streaming platforms out there. Yes, there are a ton of others, but having an Apple Music add-on available carries a lot of weight. With their recent deal with the platform, Optus has made an attempt to match Telstra’s stride in the music streaming arena.
But the attempt is a bit shorthanded. Where Optus only limits their Apple Music offer to postpaid customers, Telstra offer the service to both prepaid and postpaid customers. Where Optus’ Apple Music offer means you have to spend your included data to use the service, Telstra offer the service with data-free streaming. In short, Telstra wins this one by far.
Even some MVNOs offer entertainment inclusions with data free streaming. Perhaps checking out Boost Mobile would be a great idea — they also offer data-free streaming of Apple Music, along with some very nice, price-friendly plans, although you’d have to actually buy an Apple Music subscription or already have one.
While Optus’ offer is for a free 6- or 12-month Apple Music trial, it still leaves a lot on the table. In fact, Apple Music is currently running a 3-month free trial offer on its own, and that makes Optus’ offer even less big of a deal. This is especially so when you consider that, in order to get the 12-month free trial, you have to shell out big bucks for Optus’ costlier plans. To be fair, it’s a good attempt and actually a good offer. But considering the competitive Australian telco landscape, Optus could definitely do a lot better.