Optus Cans Free Social Networking On Postpaid Plans



Attention all social butterflies: Optus this week has confirmed it will no longer give its postpaid customers on a contract free, unlimited access to social networking.

Up until Sunday, Optus offered all customers signing up to a new, two-year contract free and unlimited access to social networking sites. That included Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Foursquare, MySpace and LinkedIn. Optus has now ditched that offer.

Optus tells us that it’s about taking strain of its network:

As smartphone popularity continues to rise in Australia, Optus needs to maintain and enhance the network to ensure our customers can get the most out of their devices. Optus seeks to strike a balance between delivering value to our customers and the ongoing network investment required to ensure a good customer experience.

Optus is telling its customers not to be alarmed though. It has a range of measures to take the sting out of social network browsing.

Excess data rates have recently been slashed to half of what they were previously (but this wasn’t in response to axing the social media benefits) and top-up data packs can now be purchased and backdated to reduce the cost of excess data charges.

Are you going to miss unlimited social networking?