Optus mobile free trial: is a complimentary week of service enough to tempt you over?

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Optus asks: Will you opt for us?

Close up shot of an Optus storage logo
(Image credit: The Canberra Times)

Let's not sugar-coat things: Optus has had a rough couple of years, starting with the telco experiencing one of the biggest cyberattacks in Australian history in 2022, and followed by a nationwide outage in 2023. In both instances, roughly 10 million Optus customers were affected.

Now, Optus hopes to tempt Aussies to try its services by offering a 7-day free trial of its mobile network to anyone who's willing to check it out — so long as they haven't already been an Optus mobile customer in the past.

Dubbed the 'Optus Network Trial', the offer requires no commitment or payment details from the customer — users simply need to opt in to the trial via the My Optus app to receive a free eSIM which will expire after 7 days. The eSIM includes 30GB of data, unlimited talk and 1000 standard texts.

Rebuilding the trust of Aussies

Of course, there is a sign-up process involved with the Optus Network Trial, and that includes providing details from either an Australian driver licence, Australian passport or an international passport. 

Given that the 2022 data breach saw the licence and passport information of Optus customers exposed, its likely that some users will be hesitant to hand those details over to Optus, and the telco is well aware of that.

“We definitely have been rebuilding the trust across our customer base,” said Maurice McCarthy, managing director of customer success at Optus. 

“We’ve had close to a billion dollars of investment into our network and we’ve been very proud of the fact that we’ve been awarded again Australia’s fastest 5G," said McCarthy. He continued, “We want to showcase that to people with no commitment or no catches involved.”

So are you willing to try Optus out for free? Simply download and install the My Optus app on iOS or Android to opt in to the Optus Network Trial. You can also check out our Optus mobile plans review and view its SIM-only plans below.

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Stephen Lambrechts
Stephen Lambrechts

Stephen Lambrechts is the Managing Editor of Tom's Guide AU and has written professionally across the categories of tech, film, television and gaming for the last 15 years. Before Tom's Guide, he spent several years as a Senior Journalist at TechRadar, had a brief stint as Editor in Chief at Official Xbox Magazine Australia, and has written for such publications as APC, TechLife Australia, T3, FilmInk, AskMen, Daily Telegraph and IGN. He's an expert when it comes to smartphones, TVs, gaming and streaming. In his spare time, he enjoys watching obscure horror movies on physical media, keeping an eye on the latest retro sneaker releases and listening to vinyl. Occasionally, he also indulges in other non-hipster stuff, like hiking.