Vodafone drops broadband prices

VODAFONE Australia has dropped its mobile broadband prices in anticipation of lower consumer confidence in the wake of the global credit crunch.

The carrier has slashed the price of its 1GB mobile broadband plan by $10 per month to $19.95 for customers that sign up for 24 months.Also it no longer requires new customers to be Vodafone mobile voice subscribers to qualify for its 5GB plan which costs $39.95 per month on a 24 month contract.

Previously non-voice subscribers were expected to pay $49.95 per month under the two year deal. Consumers that subscribe to the 5GB plan for the same period will also have equipment charges waived.

Excess data will cost 10 cents per megabyte for both plans.

A spokeswoman for Vodafone Australia said that the new pricing was a response to gloomy economic forecasts in the wake of the collapse of major US mortgage and credit providers which threaten to destabilise international financial markets.

“Certainly in this market consumers are tightening their belts… we wanted to make our pricing as accessible as possible,” the Vodafone spokeswoman said.

Strong mobile broadband pricing competition between carriers has sharply accelerated take-up of wireless internet services over the last nine months.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ most recent Internet Activity Survey revealed that the number of wireless internet users nearly doubled in the six months to June 2008 to climb to over 800,000 subscribers.

At the end of last year there were around 430,000 wireless subscribers.