Optus doles out quota-free music streaming for prepaid customers

Beginning next Tuesday, Optus users on prepaid plans will be able to stream music from Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Guvera and not have it count towards their data quota.

For post-paid customers, the current arrangements of streaming services chewing up data continue to apply.

Optus said the announcement is the next step towards shifting the company from a pure telco to more of a multimedia provider.

"With 78 percent of 16-34 year-olds already enjoying music streaming, it makes sense for Optus to partner with some of the most sought-after streaming services," Ben White, managing director of Marketing and Product at Optus, said.

"Although Australia is a nation of music lovers, we know that data is the number one barrier for Optus customers when it comes to music streaming."

The company also said it would be offering 15 percent off music products via a customised music store, and has struck up partnerships for access to live music and artists.

Earlier this month, Optus announced that it would be restructuring its Enterprise and Consumer divisions through a series of redundancies.

"Optus Business, and the Wholesale and Satellite divisions [will] rationalise roles and optimise resources in response to the increasingly competitive trading environment," Optus said at the time.

"These changes require Optus to reshape its workforce with the skills required in an increasingly digital world and to invest in the capabilities required to bring ideas to market more quickly. As a result, Optus is proposing to make a number of roles redundant."

In November last year, Optus announced its shift back into the content business when it won the rights to broadcast the next three seasons of the English Premier League in Australia.

"This is another significant step in our strategy to become a mobile-led multimedia company," chief executive Allen Lew said on the deal.