That's the point though, isn't it. They're already miles ahead of their competition with their regular iphone plans and have grabbed the lion share of the market. They now realize that they don't have to do any better with the business plans. It's not up to them to 'help business save some cash'!

The new business plans (set to be released next month according to someone from Optus today) will be different. The current business plans vs. regular plans differences basically boil down to:

- better call rates
- better extras (potentially better call rates again)
- free calls between mobiles on the same account
- someone here mentioned something about visual voicemail, but that's a rumour as yet

I was told that they wouldn't be calling people but they'd be happy to help you switch for free.

One issue with switching between call plans on Optus is that your handset repayments don't change, for better or worse. So, if you switch up you won't get the benefit of the reduced handset repayments. In your case, that's a bummer as $49 -> $59 took $5 off the handset repayments. Similar going from $29 to $39 in the non-cap plans.

There is a apparently a $50 fee for changing plans and the fine print says you can't change for six months, but there may be a loophole here if you start on a higher plan and change down. If the handset repayments don't change, you could get a very cheap iPhone. Don't quote me. YMMV. Etc.

You are kidding me right?

They may have grabbed 80% of the iPhone retail market but havent even tried the business market yet.

So do you think companies for example who are looking for iphones in large numbers for their sales teams or field staff were in the line up at Optus World George St or at the Sydney Apple Store last week?

As of last friday it will be up to 6 weeks when someone will call you (if you are on a business plan) to offer you to upgrade to the new business iphone plans for Free.

If under the new plan your handset would have cost you less then optus will credit your account the difference.

Cant ask for more than that

Thanks for the info.

So the plans will be available in six weeks right?

Any idea whats in the plans?

Cheers, motef

hey. I have seen the business plans flyer. The plans are identical to the personal plans, the only difference I'd the flyer is black.

yesterday when i got my iphone from the apple store, i was asking about the business plans.
She said that, they have been put to the side at the moment, but should be out within a month or so. Only real benefits would be more data, and some extra voicemail functions....

Err, no, I'm not kidding you.

Optus plans are already streets ahead of the rest. Even though they announced their plans first, giving eg Telstra, the chance to gazump them, the Optus plans are still the best. If Optus were last to announce their plans, they may not be as good as they are.

Clearly Telstra are not that interested in the iphone. They're not even really trying to compete and are prepared to see some of their users jump ship.

Yes, the decision makers for the business sectors wouldn't be the types to stand in a queue at launch but there will be plenty of interest from business largely due to the superior specs & applications of the iphone that can offer business justifiable reasons to supply their staff en masse.

There are not that many businesses that will be swayed one way or another by literally a few dollars savings and a few extra mb of data. ie It won't be a deal breaker, the unit itself is more important.

So why would they need to offer further inducements to business? If they don't, they won't and they'll still sell container loads of them.

Are these data bolt-on options new? $20 for 1GB, $35 for 2GB for $50 for 6GB, alongside your normal 24 month contract. Seems pretty reasonable. 15c per MB excess.

http://smb.optus.com.au/web/ocaporta...=smallbusiness

no they aren't that new, they have been out at least a month (i posted them here in another thread.) they may have been around even longer though

I can confirm this is true. You can expect new business plans to come out roughly around Aug 11. They decided rather than try to rush and meet the July 11 deadline with new business plans they would put SMB customers on the new iphone consumer plans and give them their first month of unlimited data. Bear in mind, these data plans are a new exercise for them also and they are having to restructure their billing to take into account data. They didnt want to make a mistake and announce plans that wouldnt make sense or be competitive. Quite frankly, I think it was a good decision and business customers can only expect to receive more benefits when the new plans are launched.

Just to try and recap what's happened in my mind..

1. Optus has released business plans which are identical as personal plans.
2. They are expected to release better plans in the next month..

Is this right or have i got something wrong? Cause dang dang i didn't just buy it and not try and get onto a business plan.

That's the info that's coming from Optus sales reps pretty consistently. Ordering a white 16GB tomorrow

Bump ... anyone have any info on the SMB plans yet?

Nothing yet on the web page....