Optus has followed the lead of archrival Telstra, raising the prices of its mobile plans for the second time in a year just weeks after the industry ombudsman said declining financial hardship complaints suggested telcos were finally addressing cost-of-living pressures.

The new price rises, which will kick in on 18 May, will see the price of specific Small, Medium, and Large Choice Plus plans increase by $5 per month – echoing the price rises announced by Telstra just a week earlier.

Optus’s current $55 per month Small Optus Choice Plus plan, for example, will cost $60 per month with a data allowance that will be increased from 50GB to 60GB per month.

The $65 Medium plan with 200GB per month will increase to $70 for 240GB per month, while the $85 Large plan with 400GB will cost $90 per month with 480GB of data.

Whereas Telstra charges customers of most plans for additional data at a rate of $10 per 1GB, Optus does not charge for extra data but throttles data speeds once a threshold has been reached.

Optus – whose CEO Stephen Rue last year said the company was “[prioritising] exceptional service, competitive offers and a reliable network” – is not changing the price of prepaid plans for now.

Customers paying for service they should already have

A string of catastrophic incidents – including its major data breach, service outages and Triple Zero failures – have highlighted the need for Optus to implement widespread systemic improvements, and the latest price rises will effectively fund these improvements.

Yet coming almost a year after Optus’s last price rises, the latest hikes mean its customers will now be paying up to 20 per cent more than they were a year ago – hitting the company’s affordability even as smaller competitors push down their prices amidst cost-of-living challenges.

Taking a page from Telstra’s hymnal, an Optus spokesperson told WhistleOut the price increases would support “significant, ongoing investments in our network to improve coverage, speed and resilience, while also strengthening the service and support we provide to customers.”

The industry’s repeated price rises have led the ACCC to warn that it is “concerned about the impact that has on consumers, especially those relying on lower-cost plans who are disproportionately affected.”

The Optus price rise comes a month after the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) reported that financial hardship complaints had dropped by 19.2 per cent quarter on quarter, and days after industry regular ACMA announced it would replace self-regulation with enforceable rules for the sector.

ACMA’s push for service clarity has seen it set out new industry standards that will force telcos to improve the transparency of mobile service maps and keep a register of service outages that Communications Minister Anika Wells said will “put a stop to this mess.”

But how far is too far?

With telcos required to comply with the new standards by 30 June, the Optus price rises will effectively help subsidise the carrier’s efforts to comply – but will customers see the value?

Not by early indications, with one participant of a Reddit forum calling Optus “brutal” and another questioning why Optus thought customers wanted “more data at an extra cost” – with many openly weighing switching to cheaper competitors from ALDI and Woolworths.

“I don’t get how I can be with a phone provider for so long and the price keeps going up and up,” another forum participant said.

“I used to get discounts for loyalty [but] now it’s just blatant gouging.”

The ACCC, which offers guidance for consumers working to keep their mobile costs down, shares similar concerns, noting that “consumers do not generally use all their data inclusions and may not value additional data.”

Many customers will likely vote with their feet.

Another forum participant advised using the changing prices to negotiate a better deal with their mobile carrier

“I called them, quoted a better deal and they beat it by $5 a month,” they said.

“It pays to be a Karen sometimes.”