What a two year mobile phone contract will really cost you
14 Sep 2016
With the iPhone 7 set to hit the market this Friday the temptation to sign up to a two-year contract’s looking pretty attractive to some. Wait a minute! We’ve got the numbers to show that buying the phone outright and combining it with a SIM-only plan might be the more budget-friendly way to go.
We’ve teamed up with economist John de Ridder to crunch the numbers of buying a phone on contract versus buying a phone outright and pairing it with a SIM-only plan. What we discovered was that many Aussies are missing out on great deals during the two years they’re locked into a contract as the market moves on without them. We reckon this ‘opportunity cost’ (the value of what they’re actually giving up by signing up to a long-term contract) hits their hip pocket harder than the initial sting of buying the phone outright. Check out this clip which explains it all:
Opportunity cost
A lot has changed since the iPhone 6 was launched in 2014 (we’ve all moved on from kale and finally stopped hearing songs from Frozen), and the reality is that a lot will change over the next two years. This means that what we need from our mobile plans in six, 12 or 18 months is likely to be very different to what we need today.
What’s changed since the iPhone 6 was launched in 2014
To name just a few:
- Unlimited calls and texts have become standard for mobile plans
- Excess usage fees have been standardised to $10 per gigabyte across most Aussie telcos
- Mobile data allowances have sky-rocketed – for example, two years ago, 5GB was considered a huge amount of data. Now, telcos offer as much as 30GB - that’s a 500% increase!
- The big three telcos opened up 4G access to wholesale partners, resulting in more competitive pricing and options
- Popular new platforms and content such as Snapchat and 360-degree Facebook videos have increased our daily demands for mobile data – for instance, video traffic currently accounts for about 15% of total 4G mobile network downloads. By 2020, it’s expected to jump to 75%*
Mobile contract FOMO
SIM-only plans simplify things by offering value for money data and plan inclusions that are often significantly better than their equivalent phone-inclusive contract plans. They also give you the freedom to move at any time so you don’t miss out on better deals when they hit the market.
If you’re looking to get an iPhone 7 then our blog - The best way to get your hands on the iPhone 7 outright is a must read for you.
Cheers,
Ged - amaysim's PR guy.
*The Evolution of Big Video – Examining telco transformation video opportunities, joint whitepaper from Huawei and OVUM
