Thinking of flying somewhere nice? Optus customers mightn’t need to worry too much about their data spend overseas with an optional extra.
If you’re thinking of catching a flight anywhere that isn’t Australia, you probably need to plan some things. You need clothes, luggage, and all the extra bits and pieces worth thinking about.
One of those is definitely your phone — it’s with you all the time anyway — and while that might be a charger and battery pack, you’ll also want to consider how you handle your mobile connection abroad.
Depending on who you’re with, that can be one of many ways. You could just let things work the way they should, opting for whatever overpriced rate your telco normally sticks you on, or go out of your way to look for a SIM or eSIM when you land, going instead for a local plan using the currency of the nation you’re in.
Another could be to actively check whether your mobile carrier in Australia has something you can take advantage of that works better for value.
Vodafone has long offered a way to extend mobile use overseas for an optional five bucks and it appears Optus is getting in on that this week, launching a $5-a-day roaming option for Optus Choice Plus plans that can automatically be charged to your account.
Essentially, the addition will see customers charged five dollars per day while roaming getting 5GB of data and unlimited standard text and talk, though if you go beyond the 5GB in one day, you can add another and another. For instance, if you see yourself churning through 15GB while overseas, Optus will sell you three of the Optus $5 Roaming additions stacked on top of each other for $15 for the one day.
“Traveling overseas can be a life-changing experience and half the fun is sharing that experience with friends and family back at home, as well as being able to stay connected with your travel buddies in a foreign country,” said Matt Williams, Managing Director of Marketing and Revenue for Optus in Australia.
“With Optus’ $5 a day Roaming, we have created our easiest and most convenient roaming product yet, which also comes at a great value price point,” he said.
There are some catches to the add-on, such as how you can use the $5 roaming — only on phones, not tablets or computers — and where you can use it. Specifically, it’ll work in over 100 places, covering the US, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Italy, and a whole lot more, but any place not on the list won’t see the Optus $5 roaming addition offered.
But it is launching now, so if you’re an Optus subscriber thinking of heading overseas shortly, this might be worth checking out if you’re planning to keep using your phone the way you normally would.
