Mighty Mobile’s sharp pricing - if you buy in bulk
A new mobile player is vying for our communication spend, one that will appeal to value-minded mobile users willing to buy a 12-month plan upfront.
Mighty Mobile, an offshoot of online retailer Mighty Ape, has entered the market with three mobile and data plans, one that offers unlimited data speeds suitable for streaming 4K video content, it claims.
Might Ape is a so-called MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) which is piggybacking on the One mobile network to provide its service. It pays a fee to access One’s 4G and 5G network coverage, but is able to offer sharp pricing by avoiding the need to run any of its own infrastructure. It has simply set up a lean customer service operation and barebones marketing efforts.
Mighty Mobile isn’t really a new player. Mighty Ape, which has been in business for over 20 years and is my go-to place for buying books, was bought in 2020 by Australian e-commerce operator Kogan, which has also kept the Dick Smith consumer tech brand alive as an online store.
Kogan is already in the New Zealand market as an MVNO with One, and when it runs specials, offers some of the best-priced mobile plans. But it hasn’t gained traction and has virtually zero visibility among consumers, who are constantly bombarded with adverts for One, Spark, Skinny and 2degrees.
According to the Commerce Commission, MVNO customers accounted for just 1.3% of the mobile market last year, down from 1.8% in 2021. The fall is linked to MyRepublic, a small MVNO, leaving the market last year when its parent, Vocus, was bought by 2degrees. The numbers are in stark contrast to the UK, where MVNOs are very popular, accounting for 31% of the market. Grocery chain Tesco is the leader with 7% of the mobile market using O2′s network.
Australia’s MVNO customer base has also shrunk this year, from 15% of total customers to an estimated 6%. That, too, was down to existing player Optus buying MVNO operator Amaysim.
Why haven’t MVNOs taken off in New Zealand? Without the budget to invest in splashy marketing campaigns, they tend to rely on their customer base in existing niches. Kogan pushes its mobile plans on its ecommerce platforms and via social media but has struggled to gain any brand recognition.
Mighty Ape, which claims a 700,000-strong customer base, has a better chance of doing so as an established brand known to Kiwis. It can market its plans online and via its digital mailing list. But it will still be an uphill battle.
Its own plans are competitive if you opt to pay upfront for 12 months. I’m currently a Skinny prepaid mobile customer and pay $50 a month for 15GB of full-speed data and unlimited texting and calling to New Zealand and Australia numbers. Once I’ve used my 15GB, the speed is dialled back and is virtually unusable for anything but basic web surfing.
Mighty Ape’s equivalent plan, Faster Plan, offers unlimited data usage capped at a speed of 50 megabits per second (Mbps), with the same unlimited calling and text deals. If you pay upfront for a year, it costs $499, or $41.58 a month. Paying by month costs $50. I’d be tempted to shift from Skinny to Might Ape’s Faster Plan for a saving of around $100 a year.
Importantly, Mighty Ape’s plans allow hotspotting - using your mobile data connection to provide an internet connection to other devices, such as a laptop or smart TV. Its “Fastest Plan” offers “unlimited max speed data” for $799 a year upfront ($66.58 a month) or $80 per month. That’s a great deal, but may be beyond the reach of typical prepaid mobile customers.
The entry level “Fast Plan”, at $33.25 a month on the annual plan ($399), is well-priced, but mobile data speed caps out at 10Mbps, which will make it of marginal use for hotspotting. There’s a fair-use policy attached to all of the plans - so if you are churning through vast amounts of data by connecting multiple devices to your mobile data connection, you may get cut off by Mighty Ape.
The Kogan Mobile deals prioritise offering an upfront yearly fee for unlimited calling and texting and a set amount of data for the year. For instance, the large plan offers 180GB of data for $330 or $27.12 per month. That is also a competitive alternative to my $50 a month Skinny deal.
The downside with MVNOs usually relates to roaming arrangements, which are more restrictive and expensive than the big mobile operators can offer. At the moment, Mighty Ape only offers roaming to Australia, but will add international roaming by the end of the year. Mighty Ape users heading overseas are better off picking up a local SIM card and mobile plan for their trip instead of trying to rely on a roaming plan.
If you are looking for fancy features, such as sharing a mobile data plan across a smartphone and smartwatch, you’ll generally be out of luck with MVNOs, too.
We need more MVNOs to diversify the options in our mobile market. Kogan Mobile hasn’t fired as a brand, and its owner is hoping Mighty Ape will have better cut-through with mobile users. Its offering is certainly the best alternative to the big three we’ve seen yet.
Mighty Mobile
Pros:
- Competitive prices for 365-day plans
- Hotspotting allowed
- No overage charges
Cons:
- Data speed limited on “Fast” and “Faster” plans
- Limited roaming options
- Fair-usage policy
