Vodafone Australia simplifies its pre-paid mobile plans in lead-up to TPG merger

A week after announcing its merger with TPG to challenge the likes of Telstra and Optus, Vodafone Australia (VHA) is overhauling its pre-paid mobile plans “to make things simpler” for its customers.

Starting today, there will be six new “key” pre-paid plans available, ranging from $10 to $60 in price. Called the Vodafone Combo Plus, these new plans will replace the telco’s Talk and Data plans, and offer data as well as plenty of standard international minutes.

Calling overseas

The latter is what Vodafone is trying to sell, although on the more expensive plans. The Aussie telco has added more countries to its international calling list, split up into two zones covering over 90 countries.

Vodafone’s research has shown that India, China and New Zealand are the destinations receiving most calls from Australia, so the international talk time for these three Zone 1 countries have been upped to a maximum of 2,000 minutes. There are a total of 20 nations included in Zone 1, but if you want to chat for that long with loved ones overseas, you’ll need the $60 Combo Plus plan.

In Zone 2 are countries like Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Belgium and the Czech Republic and, along with 70 other countries, get a top of 150 minutes of international talk time.

All the inclusions

All Combo Plus plans come with infinite national talk and text, with those priced $40 and over coming with a 35-day expiry, while the cheaper options don’t include international minutes and have a 28-day expiry.

In terms of data, again, it’s the $40 and higher Combo Plus plans that offer loads more data than the cheaper ones. You can get 6GB on the $30 plan, but if that’s not enough, then the $40 plan offers 17GB while the $50 plan includes a whopping 30GB.

If you’d like to sign up for one of the new plans, you can head to Vodafone Australia’s website to find out more.

Sharmishta Sarkar
Managing Editor (APAC)

While she's happiest with a camera in her hand, Sharmishta's main priority is being TechRadar's APAC Managing Editor, looking after the day-to-day functioning of the Australian, New Zealand and Singapore editions of the site, steering everything from news and reviews to ecommerce content like deals and coupon codes. While she loves reviewing cameras and lenses when she can, she's also an avid reader and has become quite the expert on ereaders and E Ink writing tablets, having appeared on Singaporean radio to talk about these underrated devices. Other than her duties at TechRadar, she's also the Managing Editor of the Australian edition of Digital Camera World, and writes for Tom's Guide and T3.