VHA hits $49 in wireless broadband price war

Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has cut the price of its prepaid mobile broadband start kit to under $50 as it faces stiff price competition from rivals Telstra and Optus.

The mobile telco had seen its previous $79 offer undercut by Optus and matched by Telstra.

Both its rivals offered double the amount of included quota compared to VHA's starter kit, but were now at least $20 more expensive at list price.

The new VHA kit - including a USB stick modem and 1GB of data - cost $49, according to the Vodafone website.

The Three website separately showed the cut-price offer, but it included only 200 MB of data.

A spokesman contacted by iTnews confirmed the gap between data quotas for different VHA brands.

Optus had recently cut the price of its $79 starter kit to $69 and offered 2 GB of data.

And Telstra's starter kit was being offered for $79, some $50 less than its previous list price. It also included 2GB of data.

Quota amounts across all three carriers expired after 30 days.

Two of the three carriers also offered ‘premium' starter kits that came with larger quota limits and longer expiry periods.

Vodafone offered 6 GB for $99 with a 94-day expiry period, and Optus offered 5 GB for $99, but the expiration period for the quota was six months.