Vodafone Hutchison Australia has announced it will introduce a temporary $10 per month “Stay Connected Cap Plan” to provide relief to customers experiencing financial difficulties due to COVID-19 impacts.
From 20 April, existing Vodafone Consumer Postpaid Voice customers and Business customers on Red or Red Plus plans will be able to apply via the Vodafone website for the “Stay Connected Cap Plan”.
The plan will include 3GB of mobile data and unlimited standard national voice calls and SMS for use in Australia for just $10 per month for a period of three months.
Vodafone Chief Executive Officer Iñaki Berroeta said the company hoped the plan would ease some of the pressure for customers experiencing financial difficulties.
“We recognise this is a very stressful time for many of our customers who have lost employment or income as a result of COVID-19, and we are a key part of their support network,” Mr Berroeta said.
“This plan will allow customers to stay connected to the people important to them and the services they need, without worrying about their phone bill.”
Mr Berroeta said today’s announcement was the latest initiative in an unprecedented series of packages to support customers across the board.
“The COVID-19 situation is affecting customers in different ways, whether it’s unemployment, remote working or learning, or being physically isolated from people important to them,” he said.
“We want to help as many customers as we can, especially those who need help the most, with initiatives to support their changing needs at this time.”
Other recently announced initiatives are:
- Two-month credit for registered health practitioners on their monthly postpaid access fee or prepaid recharge (applications available soon via Vodafone website);
- 90% reduction in the cost of overage data to $1/GB for consumer postpaid mobile, tablet and MBB customers who exceed their data inclusions and trigger overage from 31 March 2020 to 5 May 2020;
- A one-off 10GB data bonus offered to active prepaid mobile customers who have used their service in the last 30 days via opt-in SMS from 31 March (offer must be claimed by 30 April, 2020);
- One-off bonus of 3GB for prepaid customers on their next recharge before 30 April, 2020;
- One-off bonus 5GB of data given to postpaid customers who are not on endless data plans for use in Australia over a month (added by 27 March, 2020);
- Unlimited standard national calls for all prepaid and postpaid customers who don’t already have this as a feature in their plan from 27 March until 30 April, 2020;
- Free-rating of official federal, state and territory government health websites and Centrelink, MyGov and Services Australia websites;
- Vodafone is not charging any late payment fees, suspending services or chasing debt collection for overdue accounts from 26 March until at least 30 April 2020.
Stay Connected Cap Plan
- $10 per month available for three months only
- 3GB of mobile data for use in Australia only
- Unlimited standard national voice calls and SMS for use in Australia only
- Available to existing Vodafone customers on consumer voice plans and Business customers on Red or Red Plus plans only
- This plan is a month to month SIM Only plan.
- Applications will be available online only at vodafone.com.au from 20 April until 20 May, 2020 (unless extended)
- Proof of financial difficulty required
- After three months customers will be returned to their existing plan
- Payments on device (such as phones and tablets) and/or accessory plans will still be due
