It appears that Kogan is going to start selling pre-paid mobile plans based on the Telstra Network. The EFTM website has done a fairly comprehensive bit of detective work on the proposed cut price Telco venture with a number of things adding up to what appears to be a pretty good offering.
To start with, EFTM ran a WHOIS domain search and found that Kogan had registered the domain koganmobile.com.au back in September. As Kogan is still a purely on-line retailer, this website would be the most likely place for them to supply their Kogan Mobile branded SIM cards from and perhaps even pre-paid phone bundles perhaps even launching their own long awaited Kogan branded Android handset?
Koan has also released an Android app into the Google Play Store whose description spells out the intention fairly clearly : The Kogan Mobile app is for customers on one of Kogan’s mobile pre-paid plans. Use this app to manage your account with Kogan Mobile. The app appears to offer controls over your mobile plan including recharges, balances and expiry dates as well as the ability to purchase from the Kogan store.
At this stage there is no mention of plans to give pre-paid on the Telstra 4G LTE Network but their 3G offerings sound pretty attractive financially with the no contract rate of $29 per month with unlimited calls, texts and 6GB of data. There will be bundled savings as well, you can pay $79 for a 3 month contract by paying up front or $299 for a 12 month option.
Head over to ETFM to see the full story but the bottom line is, that those prices are pretty good and coupled with access to the Telstra network it would certainly attract a large amount of customers. Ruslan Kogan has never been one to pull back from disrupting an industry and those prices would certainly attract me.
Would you be interested in a Kogan Mobile pre-paid plan?
I use the Telstra/Bigpond Unmetered Data to listen to music – you reckon this will be included in the Kogan Mobile plan?
If it is – I’m in without a moments hesitation!
This would be great, i could use 6 gig of data, i live on a farm, and can only access the internet via a blue tick telstra phone. now to unlock said phone.
I’ve order a sim as I’m now out of contract with Vodafone, however I’m quite interested to see how this pans out considering Telstra’s position on this.
Oh, anyone who gets a SIM, can you post your impression here?
Especially if you live outer suburban with patchy coverage on other networks.
Telstra Response: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/12/telstra-were-not-in-bed-with-kogan/
Sites gone live – http://www.koganmobile.com.au/
Already ordered 2 SIMs. Heres hoping that the $29 ‘special offer’ actually is permanent.
Well…. there you go.
My kids contracts on Optus end over the next few months, and this is a good way to go.
Doesn’t look right. For one thing, the ETFM screenshot says $36/m, yet they claim directly underneath that it’s saying $29/m. That’s a strange mistake. Also, Telstra prepaid BYO starts at $50/m for 1GB, up to $100/m for 3GB. I can’t see them allowing Kogan (whether at $29/m or $36/m for 6 whole GB) to undercut them dramatically on their own network, unless: (a) Kogan is only allowed to use the 3G network, AND (b) Kogan imposes some sort of speed cap per customer, AND (c) Kogan traffic is subject to a lower priority than Telstra’s own customers. As much as… Read more »
That price for 6GB of Telstra just didn’t seem right, I admit.
At a time when the carriers are getting tighter and stingier with their data plans.
Even so, if Koges comes up with a price that’s similar to Amaysim, even for One Gig of data, then I’m interested.
The $36 price was the price in the app at the time they submitted the to Google play – clearly, as it was not their final price – the app itself has been updated. That’s all.
If it’s good value, I’ll change, they already gave me a fantastic deal on a nexus 7, I’ll definitely be dealing with them again.
Wait…will it use the 850 frequency or other stupid ?????
Telstra has shutdown their 2100MHz network, so it’d have to be 850.
Kogan will use the 850MHz 3G network (what Telstra brands ‘nextG’) but will be speed limited to 7.2mbps. That means no DC-HSPA, and obviously no access to the 4G LTE network. They will use 6,600 3G towers, which is about 1,500 towers short of the entire network. Network coverage is 98.5% of the country, still better than Optus and Vodafone.
Yep, thats the network
prepaid 4g for a annual subscription—– I’m In 🙂
A well priced and Telstra?
ahhhh… I’m interested.
I’m living on Amaysim at the moment. If it costs the same and it’s Telstra,well that’s magic.
For that price, with 6GB of data I’ll be lining up to get one at launch. Less interested in calls and texts, but running out of data halfway through a month is annoying.
This …… is excellent news if it all pans out!!
I am interested, my current Vodafone plan is up in the next couple of weeks and would definitely consider this. (I specifically bought the phone on a 12 month plan so that i could change)
Always want to go onto Telstra network, but never the Telstra billing system.
Also much more competitive than Telstra plans by the looks of it.
As I have a galaxy nexus (and don’t plan on changing soon) then 3G is fine.