With the recent shutdown of new subscriptions, the absolute shitshow that was their sSIM support, and with 'upcoming changes' being the only vague communication current customers are getting, should I be concerned about what might happen to the service?
Seems to me they aren't doing so hot.
Hopefully it isn't absorbed into Optus entirely. I don't like the pricing of their plans. I'm tempted to switch to Belong, if only to take advantage of the 5G access and unlimited banking.
If you've tried Belong, can you share your experience? Even just Telstra, I've never used their service before. Keeping in mind I don't live in the major cities. It is a city, but definitely not a Brisbane or a Sydney.
Thanks.
Hopefully you'd be grandfathered in on old pricing, but once that happens it's a good time to start looking elsewhere. They'll be keep to get you on Optus pricing eventually.
Telstra service is generally better than anyone else, particularly outside of cities. So I'd definitely look at Belong or Boost. Telstra is expensive outside of the JB Hifi gift card deals (but those are getting less common).
Yeah, but then again that's an inevitability for any company. The way Belong's doing its price increase (not letting current customers have the old price) indicated Optus would probably do the same.
I was considering Boost for the full Telstra network support, but quite honestly all I need is a cheap plan. The cheapest for Belong is $29 for 25GB (from July 7, currently $25 for 20GB), so I'd go with that. Unlimited data banking anyway, I'll never be using that much in a month. Boost doesn't provide this option. So yeah if I was gonna go with a Telstra telco Belong's my best option as far as I can tell.
@freefall101: I don't think that'll be necessary. I don't really wanna commit to a long-term plan in case the company's doing something I don't like much. I want the freedom to switch if need be without losing a bunch of money. If I did go with Belong I'd probably just get the $45/100GB (maybe even $55/160GB) plan with Belong for a month, then switch to the $19/5GB plan while banking the rest of the data from the old plan (Belong, unlike many, does not make you forfeit banked data when switching their plans). That will last me a good while, if not indefinitely.
I’ve been with Belong for more than 5 years and I’ve been very happy. Can’t comment on the customer service because it’s not something I’ve ever had to use. I regularly recommend Belong to friends and clients. I have just over 700gb of accumulated data. I’ll never get through that in a million years, but it’s nice to know it’s there if my home internet went down or something.
I am a little bit salty that my $10 plan became $15, and then $19 over the course of a year but it’s still pretty great value. Just not as great as it used to be.
Coverage good, speeds good, and the service has got better over time (they’ve added 5G, VoLTE, VoWiFi and voicemail over the last little while). Only thing I wish they had is eSIM. Not a dealbreaker.
Happy to answer any other questions you might have.
Great to hear. As for customer service, it's probably a pretty good sign that you've never had to use it. From what I've heard, Optus customer service is a joke, and Gomo's is very clearly outsourced to people who aren't particularly good with English.
Yeah, the price hikes are frustrating, I would for sure have gone for the plan you're on. Unfortunately I believe it isn't offered to new customers anymore, so there goes that idea.
Yeah, the 5G is pretty unique for a budget plan. I wish it had eSIM too, but iirc they are going to add it eventually. Gomo had eSIM too, but we're having issues (as in it didn't work at all ever) for literally 6 months or so before they just canned it completely. But yikes.
Optus has always owned Gomo since day 1.
@OP, most likely outcome is that they'll fold the Gomo customer base into Optus
I was with Jeenee on the old $9.90 plan with 1GB data. There's other people at work I talked into signing up too. On one of my numbers I was lucky enough to get a WhistleOut deal and it was $8.90 a month. It was sad when they got bought out by Vaya (aka Amayasim). They have honored the plans and we got extra data. My full priced plan got 4GB data and my discounted one got 2GB. They give you extra data in your birthday month
Vaya doesn't offer plans at the moment. Not really interested in them anyway. No data banking, plan change fees? No thanks.
Optus bought GoMo Australia. Now it appears to have decided to shut it down. But the fact its owned by Optus means there's no reason to be concerned about losing your service. The only question is what name the service will continue under, and at what price.