Aldi slashes mobile data plans – $35 gets you 1 Gig

Ahh, the memories, remember when $35 got you 5 Gigabytes of mobile data with fresh new face on the mobile scene – Aldi?  That same $35 now gets you just 1 Gig thanks to the industry’s need to push up our average user spend and get rid of the data hogging low-cost plans.

We flagged it here some time ago, the end was near for the MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) market.  After the collapse of ispONE last year which saw Kogan Mobile end its service and Aldi reach a direct agreement with Telstra – a reduction in data to this level was almost inevitable.

It’s not the big guys forcing the little guys out, it’s the big guys realising that the little guys had a little bit too much slack in their leash, so, that’s being reigned in.

Aldi had already cut the data limit on the $35 pre-paid offer to 2.5Gb, and most likely has been taking a hit on a few expensive customers in that time, but with their customer base settled, and a high likelihood most of those customers are using far less than 1Gb per month, these new plans are simply a way of preventing any new data hogs joining their service.

Remember this:

Now looks more like this:

This will be disappointing to many, but there’s still some value in those plans, and importantly the $15 and $30 pay as you go plans do still exist also, they offer 365 credit expiry which for many is just what they need for a phone that is there just for people to call you on, not for making calls or getting into Facebook.