Should you sign up with Optus or an Optus MVNO? We’ll show you through the plans

You may have noticed from our piece on Telstra MVNOs that while there is some competition in that space, there aren’t a whole lot of providers reselling Telstra’s network access. Why? It costs more, and one might assume that there aren’t the opportunities to make money as there are with other carriers.

Whatever the case is, the reality is Optus and Vodafone MVNOs are more plentiful, and there’s a lot of great bargains to be had.

Most of these bargains will be found at the lesser-inclusions end of the market, but there are some prepaid providers with huge inclusions, too – such as OVO’s SIM-only mobile broadband plans, powered by Optus’ network, offering up to 250GB a month data for just $79.95 a month (but no calls etc).

Let’s start with Optus’ main plans:

The immediate thing that jumps out at me is that these plans are tiered in the same way as Telstra’s plans, but offer an incredible jump in value. Optus’ $49 plan includes 60GB a month of data, whereas Telstra’s $50 plan includes just 15GB.

Telstra will give you 100GB for $80 per month, and Optus will do that same inclusion for just $59 a month – $21 cheaper.

You might think that Optus’ own plans are good value – and they are, compared to Telstra – but MVNOs offer even better value still.

While Optus’ own SIM-only plans start at $39 a month for 10GB (not shown above), you can get 20GB for just $18 from an Optus MVNO – that’s crazy value; half price for twice the inclusion.

Of course, this pricing is a promotion from Singapore-based Circles.Life (and requires a code to get this value – 6MONTHS) and after the first six months, as the code implies, the pricing reverts to $28 a month … which is still great value.

If you’re after more data, Circles.Life’s 60GB monthly plan is on offer for $38 a month for the first twelve months (if you use the code BINGEON), but after that, the inclusion drops back to 40GB – still quite reasonable for $38 a month.

The same trend with Telstra MVNOs generally holds true with Optus’ as well; that is, at the lower tiers, the MVNOs offer incredible value. At the higher end, though, there’s less competition – the MVNOs make their money in the lower value plans, not huge inclusions.

Optus MVNOs have prepaid options too – such as amaysim’s 60GB for $50 a month – but it doesn’t offer significantly better value than Optus itself. The advantage here is that it’s prepaid, meaning no credit checks.