16 May 2018
TPG will look to shake up the marketplace by offering six months' free service to the first customers who sign up to its new 4G mobile network.
TPG Mobile service will launch in Q3-Q4 2018
TPG said last week it would offer the first customers that connect to its 4G network a completely free service for the first six months.
The telco said in a statement that the trial service - which is to be made available in “Q3-Q4 2018” - would come with 1GB of data per day at uncapped speeds. Once the user exceeds the first gigabyte of usage in a day, the speed would be throttled back to 1Mbps.
The trial will run in “CBD areas and numerous surrounding suburbs in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane,” TPG said in a statement.
TPG has not published the number of customers to be included in the trial. Interested parties will have to register online and be invited by TPG to join. TPG said the priority would go to existing broadband customers of TPG, iiNet and Internode.
TPG already has mobile offering with Vodafone
TPG has been offering a SIM-only prepaid mobile plan since 1986, but mid-way through last year began utilising the Vodafone network.
The TPG website claims it already has 270,000+ mobile customers signed up. The prepaid plans have no lock in contract and current promotions include 50% reduction in the monthly plan fee for six months on selected plans.
Telstra says competitive pressure will hurt results
Telstra CEO, Andy Penn, advised a JPMorgan summit in Boston on 15 May 2018, that the increased competition will impact on Telstra's FY19 results.
“In the last 12 months alone we have moved from three big players in mobile and fixed, to a situation today, where we face a fourth network operator entrant in mobile, an increasing number of MVNOs and more than 170 resellers of fixed."
Penn predicted the entry of TPG would further impact on the average revenue spend per user.
He said that minimum monthly commitments by consumers for a bundle of fixed-line broadband and other telco services were already down 2.4 percent.
Despite adding 60,000 postpaid mobile customers in Q3, Telstra said that ARPU is down 3.6 percent for Q3 FY18 compared to the same quarter last year.
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