Australian MVNO Vaya has today announced a new set of updates on their data only plans, available to users from today. For the most part they’re about giving you more data for less- the exception being their lowest end plan gets cheaper, but you lose data a small amount of data.
With a number of people playing an obscure game called Pokèmon Go or something, mobile providers have very likely been seeing an increase in data usage. Vaya has upped their Data only plans to allow you to maybe run a Wi-Fi hotspot in your bag without draining the data from your monthly cap.
Pokèmon Go does use mobile data, Vaya says they see people using around 20MB per hour, or up to 50MB per day which adds up to a couple of GB a month, but it can be as low as a few MB per day it all depends on how much you play it. But there are a LOT of people playing Pokèmon Go, so maybe you should go quarters/halves etc in a wi-fi hotspot for your next Pokèmon Go meetup.
Vaya runs their MVNO service on the Optus 4G network, which offers decent coverage for users in most parts of Australia, but as per usual you should check out the coverage map before jumping in. The changes to plans include the addition of a monstrous 30GB option for $65 per month. The Vaya data plans offer decent pricing on a month-to-month basis, but when you pre-pay for a year you can save even more.
The new plans look like this:
| Data Only Plans: | Data SIM S | Data SIM M | Data SIM L | Monster! (New) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month-to-month price | $10 (previously $15) | $25 (previously $30) | $45 (previously $50) | $65 |
| 12-month price | $108 (equivalent to $9 per month) | $264 (equivalent to $22 per month) | $480 (equivalent to $40 per month) | N/A |
| Included data (billed per KB) | 1.5GB (previously 2GB) | 5GB (previously 4GB) | 15GB (previously 7GB) | 30GB |
| Excess data per GB | ||||
Maik Retzlaff, Vaya’s commercial director said of the new plans:
We’ve seen with our mobile plans that Aussies are attracted to low-prices and high-data options, and we saw an opportunity to extend this to our data-only offering. The obvious winners are people with iPads and tablets, but we think the affordable prices have made these plans – particularly the hero 15GB plan – a viable alternative for casual Internet users who can’t get fixed line broadband installed. Vaya’s data-only plans offer that sweet spot of speed and affordability.
The plans are now live on the Vaya website, head over here to check out their ‘Gamer Plans’ or here to check out their new Data only plans.
Woah… Shame it’s the Optus network, though. My experience with their network was one of oversubscription… Full bars but no data coming through. Makes me wary.
Although, being pre-paid means it’ll only be a month of pain if it doesn’t turn out good…. Hmm…. Tempting…