Amaysim has finally made the transition to the Optus 4G network, at least a year before Telstra-based MVNO’s (mobile virtual network operators) such as Boost will get access to Telstra’s wholesale 4G network.

While Telstra and Boost still have better voice connectivity by virtue of Telstra’s 850MHz 3G network, as opposed to the 2100MHz 3G network that Optus and thus Amaysim have used, Amaysim’s access to 4G now gives it vastly faster speeds than its customers on the 3G network experienced.

Full access to the Optus 4G Plus network is offered, but if you’re outside of 4G coverage, you’ll switch back to 3G (or 2G if you’re out of 3G range) as is the case for Optus customers.

Before we get onto more details, including a video interview with Amaysim CEO Julian Ogrin embedded below (scroll down a bit), let’s look at Amaysim’s new pricing and how it compares to the previous 3G-only plan.

As of today, the 3G plan of old is no longer available, with all Amaysim customers ‘grandfathered’ onto the old plan until they choose a new plan.

The old $44.90 Unlimited plan offered unlimited voice calls to standard landlines and mobiles in Australia, unlimited calls to 13, 1300 and 1800 numbers, unlimited text and picture messages and 5GB of 3G data with per ‘megabyte’ rounding and excess data charged at 5c per megabyte.

Per megabyte rounding means that if you used half a megabyte in a data session, you’d be charged for 1 megabyte. If you used 1.5 megabytes in a data session, you’d be charged for two megabytes - or rather, your 5GB allocation was used up in megabyte blocks.

The new plans now offer per kilobyte rounding, meaning you’ll use up your data allocation a lot more slowly, as such - if you use half a megabyte, your data allocation will only go down by half a megabyte and not 1 megabyte. Use just 1.5 megabytes and your data allocation will go down by 1.5 megabytes and not two.

You can see how this is a much better way for consumers on how data is used up, as it is much fairer and reflects true usage patterns.

But there is a very slight catch with the new plans - whereas excess charges if you went over your previous 5GB limit were at 5c per megabyte, the new plans, again charged per kilobyte, now have an excess charge of 7.2c per megabyte - a price increase to be sure, but offset by the much fairer per kilobyte rounding.

So, what else is new with the 4G plans?

Well, instead of a 5GB plan for $44.90 per month, the new plan offers 4GB - a gigabyte less - but now at 4G speeds and with kilobyte rounding. The rest of the benefits of unlimited calls and texts remain the same.

There’s also a new 6GB plan, which is charged at $54.90 per month, or $10 more than the current plan but for 2GB of data extra.

The $19.90 Flexi plan has 500MB of data but now at 4G speeds, kilobyte rounding and 7.2c/mb excess, charged at 9c per minute for a standard call and 9c per SMS/MMS, but you do get unlimited ‘Amaysim to Amaysim’ calls.

The $5 ‘As you go’ plan has no included data - it is charged at 7.2c/mb at 4G speeds, and calls are charged at 12c per minute and 12c per SMS/MMS.

But there is one new plan for $29.90 per month. This is called the Unlimited Text 1.5GB plan, which offers 1.5GB of data, 500 mins of included calls, unlimited SMS and MMS, and unlimited ‘Amaysim to Amaysim’ calls, with the same excess data charge and per kilobyte rounding.

So, while Amaysim has taken the previous 3G $44.90 plan’s 5GB and lowered it to 4GB of data, the faster speeds and fairer data rounding more than make up for it.

Before we get to Amaysim CEO Julian Ogrin’s printed comments from Amaysim’s media release, let’s take a look at our video interview with him, embedded immediately below - the article continues thereafter, please read on!

Amaysim CEO, Julian Ogrin, said: “A lot of telcos were tripping over themselves in the rush to bring 4G plans to market since the technology hit Aussie networks.

“We always said we’d move to 4G when networks were sufficiently rolled out and we could offer plans that made sense for the half of all Aussie mobile users expected to be on 4G services by June this year [data from Telsyte’s Australian Mobile Services Market Study FY2014]. We are now in that position.

“You could say we’re the Steven Bradbury of telcos. Rushing to be first doesn’t necessarily make you the best or the winner. We wanted to be smart and wait to do it the right way, and that’s exactly what we’ve done with 4G.

“4G isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, so we closely watched the market, followed data use trends, listened to customer feedback and then pulled together a range of plans worth waiting for. Unlike other players in the market, we don’t want to tell customers what they need or put out plans that are either price-inflated or have questionable sustainability.

“Instead we’re giving people the power to choose what they want within a range of realistic budgets along with the option of moving between plans from one month to the next. Even better, our customers will now be able to make the most of 700MHz technology and the excellent indoor and outdoor coverage benefits it brings,” says Ogrin.

Amaysim also has new ‘Data Top-up’ options.

In the coming month Amaysim ‘will release the ability for customers to simply add a new 1GB data pack to any plan for $9.90.’

You’ll be able to do this at any time during the 30 day period of your chosen plan, with this data pack valid for a full 30 days from the time it is added. People will be able to opt in or out of this option whenever they choose to.

Amaysim says it will soon also release ‘a 300MB data pack for $4.90 with the same simple terms as the 1GB data top-up, offering more choice and control for people after a small data kick.’

Julian Ogrin concludes: “With the combination of our new range of UNLIMITED plans and data top-up options, we think we’ve cracked a combination of great choices and a simple online account management experience, all on the Optus 4G Plus network that covers a range of spectrums, including the 700MHz spectrum.”