Cable & Wireless Optus today rejected a consultants' survey that alleged Australia had the fifth most expensive mobile phone call rates.

Paul O'Sullivan, Managing Director Mobile, Cable & Wireless Optus said the claims made by the National Unity Services group (NUS) don't add up and reflect a total misunderstanding of the Australian mobile phone market.

"Australian mobile charges are actually the fifth cheapest in the world according to a comprehensive OECD international benchmarking report. This showed that Australia was an extremely competitive market, which had costs amongst the lowest in the world.

"For some reason NUS has not fully accounted for low monthly subscription charges and handset subsidies. All Australian mobile phone companies provide these subsidies so that mobile phones are affordable. If these subsidies were not included then consumers would have had to buy their mobile phones outright which would mean an up front cost of many hundreds of dollars.

"Coupled with this are access fees and free calls in periods such as 'Yes' Time. Optus charges an access fee and then provides this amount back to the customer in free call time, again making mobile phone packages affordable," Mr O'Sullivan said.

The NUS survey does not appear to include important facts including:

• Handset subsidies. Handsets in Australia are heavily subsidised making mobile phones more accessible and affordable than in other countries where subsidies are not offered. This has lead to Australia having amongst the highest mobile phone penetrations at 40 per cent of total population.
• Pre-paid offerings which give customers more control over their costs. Optus has lead the way in the provision of pre-paid mobile phones.
• Social tariffing such as 'Yes' Time (free calls between mobile between 8.00pm and midnight) and 'Yes' Weekend (20 cent calls from an Optus mobile on weekends) which deliver greatly reduced or free calls to Optus mobile customers. 'Yes' Time and 'Yes' Weekend are particularly popular with residential mobile users.

"Bundled together, handset subsidies, pre-paid options, free call time and social tariffing deliver real value and choice to Optus mobile customers.

"The only true measure of mobile phone affordability, is to take all cost factors into account. In world terms Australians, and particularly Optus customers, get excellent value for the total cost of ownership of a mobile phone and are charged some of the lowest mobile phone rates in the world," Mr O'Sullivan said.

For more information:
Stephen Woodhill
Tel: 02 9342 7850