If Australian smartphone owners could wave a magic wand and get an unlimited data plan, they'd only be prepared to cough up $60 a month for it.
Depending on how old you are, you might have spent most of your life living in fear of data caps, call limits and extortionate excess usage fees – not helped by Australia's lack of competition and lacklustre consumer watchdog. If you remember when monthly data allowances were measured in megabytes rather than gigabytes, you probably still bear the scars of an horrendous bill.
![Plenty of Aussies would love unlimited mobile data, but they're not prepared to pay through the nose for it.](/web/20161030235710im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/h/2/n/b/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gscpob.png/1477613858826.jpg)
These days home and mobile data limits are much more generous, but the jump in download speeds and data-hungry services means that it's still easy to chew through your monthly allowance in a hurry – especially if you're in the habit of watching streaming video during your daily commute.
There aren't any unlimited consumer-grade mobile plans in Australia, according to finder.com.au. The plans top out at 30GB for $50 p/m – but that's stuck on 3G, using an Optus reseller, where you'd perhaps struggle to chew through 1GB per day even if you tried.
So how much would you be prepared to pay for unlimited mobile data on a 4G network? Only $60 per month, according to a finder.com.au survey. It varies across age brackets; Gen Y (aged 18-34) would pay $73.56, while Gen X would only spend $56.42 and Baby Boomers only $51.40. That's not necessarily because older people are tighter with their money, it's more that they don't feel the need for unlimited data because they use their devices differently and have learned to live within their means. On SIM only plans the average Australians pays $46.93 for 4GB per month. according to finder.com.au's figures.
At these prices, clearly there's a massive gulf between what consumers think mobile data is worth and what the telcos think it's worth – or at least what they think they can charge for it. You also need to factor in unmetered deals which make some telcos more attractive depending on what you want to watch online. For example Optus' top tier plans already offer unmetered Netflix, Stan and EPL – which would be as good as an unlimited deal for some people. Some telcos also offer unmetered sports and music streaming.
There's not much chance you'll see truly unlimited data deals on Australian 4G mobile networks any time soon, not without nasty fine print that would likely fall foul of the consumer watchdog. It's already declared that you can't advertise a service as "unlimited" if you throttle download speeds once you hit a certain limit.
Australia's lack of truly unlimited consumer-grade mobile data plans is probably a good thing, as data hogs who could download 24/7 would choke the mobile networks for the rest of us. If such deals do come along, they're likely to cost a lot more than $60 per month – regardless of what people think it's worth.
How much mobile data do you need each month and how much would you pay for a truly unlimited deal?
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