Aldi Mobile has updated its Unlimited plan, halving the data allowance. Ausdroid reader Vijay also reports that the $10 International calling credit that used to come with a $35 recharge has been removed.
The MVNO’s $35 Unlimited plan now has a number of very specific limits:
We’ve seen major changes in the highly-competitive world of Australian Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO’s) in the last few months Red Bull Mobile, Crazy Johns and more have disappeared, while Kogan Mobile departed the market in the wake of the ispOne / Telstra stoush, which Aldi notably survived.
This move by Aldi seems eerily similar to changes we saw to Kogan’s plans over time – same price, less value. That didn’t work out too well for them – the Big Three networks (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone) continue to put financial pressure on the smaller players who buy space on their networks. Will Aldi escape Kogan’s fate, and will it do so with its name for value intact?
Updated 23-10 :
Aldi has this morning sent through a full statement on the changes:
ALDI Australia is committed to delivering transparent messaging in all
of its communication and continues to introduce initiatives that
inspire trust and open transparency in the marketplace. As part of
this commitment, we can confirm that there will be a change in data
allowance on the ALDImobile Unlimited Plan, in effect from 22 October,
2013.With the revised ALDImobile Unlimited Plan, customers will be given
unlimited calls and texts to national standard numbers, unlimited
voicemail, unlimited 13/1300/1800 numbers and 2.5GB of data which has
been reduced from the previous 5GB of data, to be used within the 30
day period.Our research shows the majority of ALDImobile customers use less than
1GB of data monthly and as such, the reduction in data allowance
should have minimal impact on our existing customers. With market-wide
increases in the cost of pre-paid data, this change has been made to
ensure the ALDImobile service remains affordable for our customers.All ALDImobile Unlimited Plan 5GB Scratch Cards that are currently in
store will be removed from 21 October and the new 2.5GB Plan Scratch
Cards will be available in-store for customers to purchase on
approximately 28 November 2013. The new Card will continue to be
available for $35 and this price remains extremely competitive, with
customers still able to enjoy parts of Telstra’s 3G mobile network.ALDImobile is notifying all customers who currently use the Unlimited
Plan of the change in data allowance through email or SMS and
information cards will also be on display at all ALDI stores.We encourage customers with any enquiries to contact the ALDImobile
customer service number on 2534 (Free Call on ALDImobile phones) or
1300 989 000.Our commitment to quality, transparency and value has positioned ALDI
Australia as one of the leading supermarkets in the country. Since
2006, ALDI Australia has dominated the Roy Morgan customer
satisfaction survey of household shoppers and been awarded Supermarket
of the Year at the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards in both
2011 and 2012.
Are you an Aldi customer? How will this change affect you?
Before you get an Aldi plan consider this. They charge data in minimum 1MB blocks with a nasty habit of connecting and disconnecting each time data is sent or received. So each time your phone does some background checks (ie. for updates, synchronizing, MMS, etc) it connects then disconnects and you are charged for at least 1MB each time, even though each one of these checks would be less than 15kb. So if you phone is on standby and you don’t use it, on average you will be charged around $1.50 per day ($45/month) for data, even though you phone… Read more »
also, you cant add two recharges in the samee month. some times i did $35 and then $15 before my 30 days were up but they have also taken that away. every month i used the international calls, hubby and i both have family over seas. we dont have a house ph so now we cant call our families on the $35 bolt on. very disappointed they didnt give any notice and they changed everything all at once.
not only they slashed the internet data (which i loved the 5gig because we cant get internet at our home) they slashed the talk, mms, sms, etc, no more international calls and after changing their bolt on, hubby and i cant send or recieve mms. they told us to manually change the settings in our ph, which we did but it cut our internet completely. they cant figure out why. im happy they use telstra lines as my area can only pick up telstra 100%.
I have changed my family’s four sims to Aldi Mobile..and now this. And not even a text to us about it. Low life scum! Get stuffed Aldi. And we will not shop in your crappy stores any more.
I am a current Aldi customer. I use the 5gb because I need to have internet wherever I am. This plan was excellent value for a university student. Now, I’m looking to swap service providers, immediately. I don’t need to put up with less, for the same amount of money. They had a great service going, and would have probably wiped the floor with the big 3 if the had kept their deals the way they were. I plan to complain also; I think they should know that their customers took a big leap of faith with them, and are… Read more »
what a load of shoit. We have 6 aldi services and we all run out of the 5gb before the 30 days. Get stuffed Aldi.
We have two phones and I will leave my wife’s with Aldi as she talks a lot on it and does not use that much data. I will switch my phone to Optus $2 days as that will cost $60per month compared with Boost’s $40 per month and it gives half a GB per day so 15GB per month. I used to use all my 5GB on Aldi and have to twiddle my thumbs for a week before I could renew my data bolt on. This way I will not run out plus there may be days when I go… Read more »
So I thought if anyone was the most reliable of these major companies it was Aldi due to their comp nature for the people’s benefit. Now I just see it like the rest of these money making companies. There goes another company down the dark path. Keep your bs sim Aldi. I’m not recharging with you guys. And btw, a notification would’ve been nice.
I am disgusted with aldi mobile phone service. I got no email or SMS. infact ive just spent the last 2 days on the phone to them and the TIO. in aldi mobiles opinion the solution is apparently to go and buy a $15 and $30 voucher and call them and they will convert it to a $35 unlimited (so I am expected to spend $45 for the 3 phones in my house instead of $35. the ombudsman tells me cause that’s there final offer and cause its prepaid they cant act on it as I don’t have a contract,… Read more »
Have just made the decision to throw it away. Spent an hour on the phone last night trying to actually get it working so i could make a call only to be told that someone will ring me back…..yes that’s right…on the mobile number that i am unable to make or receive a call on. Looks like good value, but i’m not paying $35 per month for a service that doesn’t even work for half the month, have bars of service but nothing happens. Good by Aldi hello BOOST
No notification here either. Main reason I switched was for the 5gb of data. Was really happy with it but they can suck a fat one now. Bye bye aldi
same here braden, thats crap. ill go back to amaysim, never had any issue with them and never change there price, or go boost, better deal and more coverage then aldi. they all act like they make no money, what a joke
Every person I know who uses Aldi uses it for Pre-Paid internet. This is a complete kick in the face. I personally only discovered the changes after I noticed the data remaining was at 2.5gb after a recharge and called up Aldi to inquire about it. No notifications whatsoever.
They say that hardly anyone uses 1GB per month? I use all 5, every month! I’m changing providers within the next month.
No notification of any change from Aldi… The whole reason went with them was for the 5gb
No notification here either, and now tethering is also disabled, and this was the whole reason for going with Aldi. Not happy.
Very disappointing was after a big data plan and where’s my email and text to say of the changes pffffft all lies aldi !!! Hello boost
So I’ve called Aldi mobile because I noticed my auto recharge had been disabled automatically on both my numbers.. I was advised that due to the recent data changes on the unlimited bolt on pack the auto recharge option had been disabled to make people aware of the changes.. I was also advised that their customers were notified via sms and email about these changes which I clearly never received which was due to a system malfunction which seemed to affect message bank sms alerts as well. So I asked her the 64,000 dollar question – “why has Aldi slashed… Read more »
I’m not sure what you mean by “the 2GB bolt on is no longer available”. I still have the option to add that bolt on…
The 5GB was the major reason I switched to Aldi. Very disappointed.
I could just be a paranoid conspiracy theorist, but to me it feels as though the whole Kogan/Aldi fiasco could have been an elaborate ploy by Telstra to bring more customers to their Boost brand. I’m sure that after being screwed around by Kogan and Aldi, the Boost deal, which is officially backed by Telstra, must seem amazing, but it’s still not all that good a deal when you consider what other networks are offering. I personally wouldn’t go near Telstra/Boost with a bargepole, not at the prices they are charging.
The 3 big telcos are closing down all the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)….. If you have a look around, they are all dropping like flies! Even Woolworths has been chopped from Optus, Redbull got cut from Vodafone, Telstra wanted ISPone gone, and they did all they can to drive them out of business. Give it another 12 months and they will all be gone.
It would be something like that. I think anyone associated with Telstra unless its Telstra themselves is going to leave a foul taste in ones mouth. I would say the only people who will switch to Boost are where Optus do not work well, which I am one of them. Not much choice.
This is really annoying for me because I was interested in the downloads much more than the unlimited calls…
I think I’ll go with the 2gb data pack instead now…
No port out fee, you just lose the credit you have left (if any)
Now i’m thinking moving to boost mobile from Aldi…….reasons
1) i need a nano sim for my next phone (Nexus 5 🙂
2) Aldi mobile uses telstra 3g and boost uses NextG
3) Aldi initially had $10 credit for international credit and they removed 🙁
4) i need Extra 500 MB (total 3 GB), i’m a radio listener 🙂
Boost you have to specifically request a nano sim, be careful with that.
nope all good they fixed the nano sim supply thing.
International is horrendous on boost. Nothing included and their add ons are only good for a few days.
Its true roaming is priced badly! But roaming and receiving texts are FREE, so what I do it use a 3rd part app to send SMS’s via pennytel, that appear as my mobile number to the receiver. That way when I’m overseas I can still SMS on the cheap. The added bonus is on Android, the sent txt messages are inserted into the message app, so I don’t lose the threaded text messages etc.
I’m on boost, have been for about 4 or so months now, previously I was with Telstra post paid. I can confirm that the experience I have is identical to what I had with telstra. same speeds, same coverage. much much much better value. Even my 101 voicemail messages carried through. As @allisterroger:disqus stated, it’s not a great deal if you plan to use global roaming, but that’s pretty transparent on the website. Then again, I don’t really know of any major telcos with great roaming packs.. If I need mobile use overseas, I get a specific travel sim for… Read more »
“Even my 101 voicemail messages carried through.” sorry i didn’t get that 🙁
He meant his voicemail that was setup under ‘telstra prepaid’ wasn’t lost when he moved to ‘boost’. ie he didn’t need to set it up again or lose any saved voicemail messages.
This is a shame. I switched to aldi from KM because of the larger GBs. Might end up moving back to Boost now, which is a shame since it’s basically just Telstra with a different name (and it’s nice to support the underdog sometimes).
Makes you wonder why you’d have Aldi (on Telstra wholesale with restricted 3G speed) when you can have full 3G and 3GB on Boost.
$5 a month saving….. some people don’t want data, they want calls!
for $5 a month extra, I’ll take the extra speed, extra coverage, extra allowance, extra customer support and no daily download limits (ispONE) that you get with boost compared to aldi.
Don’t be forgetting that 1 kilobye = 1 megabyte on boost where on Aldi 1 kilobyte is 1 kilobyte.
Their T&C’s state that they can round to the nearest MB, but in practice, they don’t. For anyone. I can look on me history and see data sessions down to the accuracy of 1kB, including my remaining allowance. It’s the exact same data metering and terms that Telstra uses.
dont go to aldi
It’s exactly the same 3G on Boost.
No it is not, I get 19MB download speeds on Boost. 4 or 7 max on Aldi.
i thought they have capped at 24mbps unlike aldi which caps at 6mbps
Boost has access to the full 3G NextG network at 42Mbps speeds [where available], while Aldi has access to the Telstra Wholesale 3G network with lower coverage and speeds capped at 7.2Mbps.
There’s really no reason to go with Aldi Mobile as they have less coverage, less data and plenty of restrictions on how you can use your calls/sms/mms/data.
For the sake of $5, just go Boost and be done with it.