Our mobile network operator Optus have recently made some changes to their network offerings. To make it easy, we’ve outlined the changes that may impact you, which will take effect November 2022.

Premium SMS

Premium SMS has been a way of paying a third-party company not related to Southern Phone, through your bill for mobile content and for other goods and services. Commonly this service was used for competitions, TV show voting or information services (i.e., transport updates and weather alerts).

Due to a significant decline in the volume of Premium SMS transactions, Optus have decided to remove this service from their mobile network. This means that you will no longer be able to use Premium SMS services.

Mobile Video Calling

Customers with compatible 3G devices (Samsung Galaxy S6 and older) were able to make and receive calls to and from other compatible devices, at fixed national and international rates. However, Optus will no longer be supporting video calling and the feature will be shut down on these mobile devices only.

This is due to the low penetration of compatible devices and the popular use of other messaging and/or video calling applications, such as WhatsApp and Messenger. The use of these alternative type of applications including Facetime available on iPhones will not be impacted, as they run off data, and are not provided by Optus.

What do you need to do now?

There’s nothing you need to do. However, if the video calling service was something you used, we do recommend downloading an application that supports video calls for future use.