TPG’s arrival as Australia’s fourth network set to shake up the mobile phone industry
CONSUMERS are expected to be the big winners when Australia’s fourth telecommunications network sets up shop later this year.
MOBILE customers can expect to get better value phone deals when the nation’s fourth telco network enters the market.
TPG Telecom is spending a whopping $1.8 billion to build its own mobile network which should open for business in the second half of the year, competing with a market dominated by the big three carriers — Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
And it is already proposing sweeteners — a six-month free trial period including 1GB of data per day for customers, which then reverts to a $9.99 monthly charge.
But there’s a catch — customers will initially be unable to make voice calls on their network — instead this will be eventually rolled out and in the short-term customers will have to rely on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls.
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Telco comparison website WhistleOut’s spokesman Joseph Hanlon said the arrival of TPG will help intensify competition in already a hugely-competitive mobile market.
“It will certainly shake up what’s offered by the major telcos in the same way TPG has done with their internet plans,’’ he said.
“It might put more pressure on the major telcos to reconsider their price position.”
He said there are already multiple mobile deals starting from less than $10 per month including data.
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TPG Telecom’s chief operating officer Craig Levy said they can “afford to be very aggressive” because they are starting their mobile network and deals from scratch.
“In the initial stages networks are going to be brand new and we will busy fine tuning the network,’’ he said.
“The rollout of the network will take time which is why customers are being offered a free trial period.”
But industry sources have questioned the quality of TPG’s new services which they said could be “patchy” in many areas — the service will take three years to cover 80 per cent of the population.
The nation’s biggest telco Telstra has been plagued by outages in recent weeks leaving many infuriated customers without services for hours at a time.
Despite this Telstra remains the dominant force in the mobile market with 17 million customers, followed by Optus with 10 million and Vodafone with 5 million.
Telstra and Vodafone both rolled out unlimited mobile data deals recently.
TPG already has 421,000 customers through its Mobile Virtual Network Operators including iiNet.
But Telstra’s head of mobiles Kevin Teoh said the mobile market remained “incredibly competitive and that’s great for consumers.”
“It means we’re constantly providing customers with more value and new experiences,’’ he said.
Vodafone Australia’s director of strategy and corporate affairs Dan Lloyd said Australians have “very high expectations” of their mobile networks.
“There is also already very strong competition in major cities and that’s driving incredible savings for value-seeking Australians,’’ he said.
But Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton said the hype around TPG’s rollout was nothing more than more a “storm in the teacup.”
“We haven’t seen a fourth entrant come in and really be able to cut the prices and bring the big guys down,’’ he said.
“I still believe network coverage is important and that is going to be something they struggle with.”
sophie.elsworth@news.com.au
Originally published as TPG’s arrival as Australia’s fourth network set to shake up the mobile phone industry
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