Australian pricing options for Windows Phone 7

At the Sydney Windows Phone 7 press conference today, Microsoft Australia and its OEM & carrier partners announced various pricing options for WP7 devices in Australia. If you’re looking for a WP7 phone down under, here’s all the different ways you can get one after October 21.

The premier local launch carrier, Telstra, has two devices available at launch. The HTC 7 Mozart will be available for free ($0) upfront on a $49 plan with a 24 month contract. The LG Optimus 7Q with a slide-out keyboard will be available on a special consumer plan with unlimited national calls, SMS, MMS and 3GB of monthly data allowance for $0 upfront on a $129 plan with a 24 month contract. (This special plan will be available at the end of the month, may be soon after launch.)

Unfortunately the elusive HTC HD7 is not available at launch. It’s officially slated to be available exclusively through Telstra next year in 2011. You would be wise to bet the first half of the year.

Optus will be offering both the LG Optimus 7 (without slide-out keyboard) and Samsung Omnia 7 for $0 upfront with a $79 Optus Cap plan for consumers and $79 Business Complete Ultimate plan for the enterprise on 24 month contracts.

Finally, Vodafone will be offering the HTC 7 Trophy however pricing has not been revealed.

Those looking for a little more plans flexibility will be glad to know that WP7 phones will be available outright. LG representatives revealed to me that both their Optimus 7 and Optimus 7Q have a recommended retail price of $799, however Telstra, Optus and retailers reserve the right to sell it for more (or less). It’s not sure whether these devices will be carrier-locked.

Four phones on three carriers. Not a bad effort for a launch a week away.

18 insightful thoughts

  1. Ag,

    Incorrect. ALL phones released in AU aren’t Next G compatible based on information released by the handset manufacturers.

  2. All Telstra handsets will support 850Mhz NextG, it’s a requirement.

    Most are even tri-band UMTS 850/1900/2100 or 900/1900/2100 for their respective carriers.

  3. Hi Chris,

    I can assure you the website is incorrect, i have contacted Microsoft to get them to update the website, hopefully you should see them update it.

      1. What are you talking about Chris?
        The page you linked specifically said it supports 850 band. That is NextG

      2. Chris is right, the specs are wrong as that is GSM 850 (2G)

        I don’t work for Telstra but one of the OEM’s so i don’t have any control over the content that is being published. I was at the launch today with Long and looked at all the devices from each manufacter and all the NextG Devices (HTC Mozart and LG Optimus7Q) support 850.

  4. if Chris is right about there being no 3G phones amongst those launch models you will be seeing a lot of very disappointed customers before too long.

    1. Tom,

      I was simply stating today that according to the specs on the MSFT & Telstra sites that NextG wasn’t possible. Telstra have since come out and said that ALL phones launched on Telstra will be NextG compatible.

  5. Is that $49 per month or per year. If its per month, which I’m almost sure it is, then its ridddddiculously expensive. I’m comparing with my country, and not any other device. If its per year, does that mean that the phone costs $100 and then you’re free?
    I suppose the $ are AUS$, are they US$ ?

    1. It’s per month and AUD$. 49 is quite a reasonable price for a smartphone in Australia.

  6. Long / Josh,

    Do you know if it will be possible to buy the Mozart unlocked so we can get it here in the US? I hate AT&T’s lineup and was excited to hear Telstra has the same band requirements. Now I’m just hoping there’s a way to get the phones purchased.

    Thanks!

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