Optus To Offer 24-Month Warranties With Contract Mobiles

Just yesterday, we mentioned that new consumer laws meant that items sold on a contract should be covered by a warranty for the life of that contract. Proving the point, the ACCC has negotiated a court-enforceable undertaking with Optus that means phones sold on a 24-month deal will be under warranty for that entire period — even for iPhone owners.

The ACCC already had similar deals in place with Telstra and Vodafone, which means a large portion of the market is covered by a proper warranty arrangement that lasts the length of the contract. (Note that the Optus deal doesn’t extend to other companies which use its network such as Boost or Virgin Mobile, since it doesn’t deal directly with consumers or supply phones under those arrangements.)

What’s particularly interesting about the deal is that it includes the iPhone, something which didn’t happen with the Telstra and Vodafone arrangements, much to the ACCC’s chagrin. Optus is generally reckoned to have the largest share of the Australian iPhone market (something which might be at least partially explained by the fact that it has the cheapest contract deals), so getting Apple included for the full 24 months is definitely a win for consumers. We’ll watch to see if similar concessions are extended by Vodafone and Telstra.

ACCC


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