Optus Home Zone Review

Are you sick and tired of poor mobile reception at your home? Each time when you receive a call do you have to run towards a window to get clear reception. If your answer is yes, then what you need is Optus Home Zone.

Optus Home Zone is a router like device that plugs into your broadband Internet connection. Once the device is plugged in, it will act as a mini cellular tower. When you use your mobile phone at home it will connect to the Home Zone device, instead of using the actual mobile network.

Any calls you make from your home, will be channeled via the Home Zone device. This means you are leveraging your broadband Internet connection for your call. Home Zone will give you 5 bars of mobile coverage. It can support up to 4 simultaneous users.

Ditch your Home Phone

As of Sep 2011, Optus Home Zone is available for $5 a month (for Optus customers with a $59 per month mobile contract). Over a 2 year contract the total cost would be $120. What makes Optus Home special is that as the primary user, any calls that you make via your Home Zone is credited back to your account (this includes most local and national calls, excluding some call types and calls to almost all Australian mobiles).

So what’s the catch?

Actually there is no catch. But the only thing you have to keep in mind is that the calls you make via Home Zone will be using your Internet bandwidth. If your are on a very low data usage plan (for example, 2 GB per month) then Home Zone will consume all of your data allowance. An average user would require approximately 1 GB of data allowance. Lets say you have 4 people in your household then you are talking 4 GB per month.

With Optus Home Zone you can call virtually any phone number. But, to use Optus Home Zone you have to use a mobile that is subscribed to the Optus network. For example, if a family member has a Telstra mobile then they will not be able to make calls via Optus Home Zone.