There’s no truly unlimited plan for anything in the universe yet, but US telco Sprint is upping the unlimited mobile plan ante.
When US mobile telcos Sprint and T-Mobile launched "unlimited" 3G/4G plans with limits including a 23GB and 26GB download limit respectively before shaping occurs during "congested times", iTWire reported on it here.
The plans, while limited despite the unlimited moniker, are still more competitive than what you get in Australia, but Australia is slowly catching up.
Telstra offers some users unmetered sport and Optus offers some users unlimited SVOD and music streaming on selected providers if you pay extra, so we are seeing some activity in the Australia market, while Telstra did offer the subscription Mobile Foxtel service unmetered for years – but sadly discontinued it recently.
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We also have players like Ovo offering 50GB data for $59.95 per month for a data only SIM, there’s even Vivid Wireless with its powered, fixed (yet mobile) 4G modems that are limited to 10Mbps down and 1Mbps up for an amazing $89 per month, so we are enjoying some pretty amazing competition in Australia.
So, what has US mobile telco Sprint done now?
The company says that following the successful kick-off of its "Unlimited Freedom", plan, Sprint has announced the "availability of Unlimited Freedom Premium".
This is "for those customers who want to watch video, listen to music and stream games in higher resolution on their mobile devices, and for those wireless users who would like to stream movies and games on their HD TV".
This means Sprint offers "two distinct options for customers who want unlimited":
- Unlimited Freedom – An unlimited option for US$60/month with mobile optimised streaming video.
- Unlimited Freedom Premium – An unlimited option for US$80/month for those who prefer a higher quality video experience.
The US $80 per month package, available "until 31 October provides a premium quality mobile streaming experience with HD streaming videos at up to 1080p+, HD music streaming at up to 1.5 Mbps and streaming gaming at up to 8 Mbps".
US mobile telcos promote "family plans" where all the members of the family are on one bill.
Sprint says "the best part is that the premium resolution experience is family-friendly".
We are told that "each family member can pick the plan best suited to them. Mom can choose the Unlimited Freedom plan for her line of service, while her son needs Unlimited Freedom Premium for its HD quality while gaming online. Dad may be fine with Unlimited Freedom, but his daughter sees Unlimited Freedom Premium as a necessity for streaming her favourite music."
I asked Vodafone about any future unlimited offers for Australians at its mid-year briefing which you can watch and read about here.
Vodafone Australia chief executive Iñaki Berroeta explained in the video linked to the story above: “Unlimited data is not something that works well in general because the spectrum is limited. This trend around offering unlimited services, there is an opportunity. Things will go that way, but true unlimited is too difficult when you have a limited spectrum."
So no unlimited mobile 4G plans besides Vivid Wireless for unlimited 4G data as yet, but the capacity for Australian telcos and clever MVNOs does exist to surprise over the next couple of years – we’ll see if it happens in that timeframe for us in Australia, or by, say, 2020.
Click this link or the chart below to see the chart at the media release in a larger size.
