Australians are paying LESS for their mobile plans than ever, but have more data than they need

Apple dominates the smartphone brands, contract plans are a thing of the past, and Telstra surges back, yet Australians are still far too loyal to their telcos despite being keen for a better deal. That’s what our data shows from our survey of over 1,500 Aussies Mobile habits.

Despite what the ACCC might say, plenty of Australians know how to find a better deal as low-cost carriers grow.

Chairman of the ACCC Rod Sims only recently said “Our analysis shows that consumers will now be left paying significantly more for a range of mobile phone plans at Telstra, Optus and Vodafone,”

“The behaviour of the three big telcos would suggest they are not concerned about losing customers to rivals.”

The fact is, that’s true, but it’s always been the case that the big-three telcos are seeking a higher average revenue per user (ARPU) for their shareholders, which is why they each offer access to their network to lower cost carriers.

EFTM’s Mobile User survey showed Aldi Mobile booming, up to 7.09% share of the market, up from 4.9% two years ago, and 2.7% five years ago.

The other big winner outside the big-three is Boost Mobile, growing to 4.9% up from 3.6% in 2019.

Optus and Vodafone both suffered declines in their share, Optus down to 22.4% from 28%, Vodafone down to 11.24% from 14.6%, though still well ahead of their position in 2016 at 6%.

On the device front, Apple had a jump in their device share, with 54.5% of users reporting using an Apple Device, up from 52%, while Samsung stayed the clear number 2 with 30%. Google’s share fell from 4.5% to 3.69%, while Oppo boomed from 3.6% to 4.1%.

The sad decline of Huawei in Australia continues, that company’s share dropping from 4.7% to 3.24%.

Critically though, we’re paying less for our mobile access. On average, the 1,587 users reported an average spend of $49 per month, down dramatically from two years ago when it was $56.

However – there’s more money to save. On Average users are paying for 40GB of data per month on their plan, up from 31GB two years ago, but usage was up just 1GB from 19 to 20GB per month.

Complacency is the real issue for Aussies. 53% of respondents reported it had been more than 5 years since they switched telcos. 18% said it was between 3 and 5 years.

So what would entice users to switch?

When asked “What one thing would make you consider changing Telcos?” – over 50% cited price or value. Staggering when you consider how many great deals there are out there, and how many people are with the big three telcos (70%).

Well over 30% of people responded that network coverage was something that would entice them to change, again – given the use of the Telstra network by some of the biggest non-network carriers (Boost and Aldi) the choice is really on the users.

Telstra’s big campaign on 5G is certainly working, with 98% of users saying they have “heard about 5G” – and the number of users with 5G coverage grew in two years from 3.4% to 19.48% while demand stayed static at 70% of users wanting 5G.

We’re loyal to our telco, we’re paying more than we need to, and we want to switch, but don’t.

Welcome to the Australian mobile market in a nutshell.