FAQ – Frequently asked questions about Mobile Usage (Optus)

If you can answer ‘yes’ to all of these, then Mobile Usage will work for you:

a.       Are you on an Optus iPhone post-paid plan? This question might seem obvious because the application description has clearly stated that Mobile Usage is for iPhone cap plans, but you always get someone that doesn’t read anything and expects magic to happen.

b.       Can you log in to my.optus.com.au on using your iPhone’s web browser using your Optus username/password? If you can log in, but the website says something to the effect that your account set up is in progress, then Mobile Usage will not work until your setup has been completed.

c.       After you log in, can you view your: (i) call usage, (ii) SMS usage, and (iii) data usage totals? If you can’t see these values then Mobile Usage cannot see them either and thus will not be able to display them.

If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to question (a) then Mobile Usage is not for you. If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to questions (b)-(c) then perhaps you can ask Optus to look into your account for you to work out why you can’t log in or see usage totals. I am not affiliated or endorsed by Optus so it’s best you speak to them about issues with the website.

Conversely, Optus are not responsible in any way for supporting Mobile Usage so if you do contact them don’t expect them to help you with this app. If you have trouble with this app and you have answered ‘yes’ to the above questions then please contact me via email. You are welcome to leave a bad review for this app if you like, but I have no way of even trying to help you out if you don’t email me because I have no way of contacting you.

IMPORTANT: if Optus significantly change their website then Mobile Usage will cease to work immediately, for everyone. This is because Mobile Usage relies on statically parsing expected HTML. If this does happen, then I will attempt to update the application parse the new HTML. As always, updates to the app are free!

Currently, Mobile Usage will display:

1.       Calls: your standard call usage + your standard SMS usage + 10% GST. Some people have asked for SMS usage to be not included in the call usage because they are on an unlimited text messaging plan – this is a very good suggestion and in version 1.1, SMS usage can be optionally toggled off so that it doesn’t get added to your call usage. Also, you can optionally add international calls and international SMS to the overall call usage. In v1.2 you can also add voicemail charges to your cap.

2.       Data: your total data usage in MB as reported by the Optus website.

3.       Cycle: your progress through your billing cycle relative to your cycle reset date.

Note that your total account spend displayed by on the Optus website is never shown because it is largely meaningless. Instead, the quantities are split up as described above.

In version 1.2, international calls and SMS information are downloaded and can optionally be added towards your cap.

Although this isn’t a frequently asked question, the answer is simple: make sure you can answer ‘yes’ to everything in Question 1 and that you have entered all of your details in correctly. It turned out that the one person that did ask this question had not fully activated their online Optus billing. They were able to log in but saw a message stating that the account setup was still in progress. Also see Question 1.

If you are still having trouble, make sure you are running the latest version of Optus Mobile Usage (currently, the latest version is v2.0.1). Try removing the application by completely deleting it from your phone and install it again by resyncing with iTunes (effectively reinstalling the app). This will remove any data corruption that occurred if the iPhone crashed.

Make sure that you have entered your username and password in correctly. Keep in mind that your username and password is case-sensitive. Also, if you username or password contains any symbols, then the app may fail to login to the Optus servers. Please make sure that your username and password contains only letters and numbers.

If your mobile number cannot be found on the Optus website for the account number you have specified, then there is a good chance you will get this error. Make sure both your mobile number AND account number have been entered correctly on the configuration page.

Connection issues can result from one of two problems:

1.       You do not have full internet connectivity on your iPhone. You need better mobile reception or wifi.

2.        The Optus website is being unresponsive. Perhaps Optus are performing maintenance on their servers. You will need to wait until they are responsive again.

It’s very simple to test if either of these two problems are affecting you: just use your iPhone to log in to the Optus website (using mobile Safari) and manually see if you can view your call, SMS and data usage.

Yes! In version 1.1+ you can see your SMS usage by inspecting the 'SMS Count'. This had been the most requested feature for the v1.1 update.

This app used to be called Mobile Usage (Optus), then Mobile Usage Meter (Optus) and now simply Optus Mobile Usage. The name changes are purely for visibility, the actual application when you download it to your iPhone is called "Mobile Usage". Basically this app is the Optus version of Mobile Usage. The name Mobile Usage refers to the family of applications that allow you to monitor your cap call spend. It comes in two flavours so far: a Virgin and an Optus version of Mobile Usage.

One word answer: maintenance. If something goes wrong with Optus Mobile Usage, then I can easily issue an update to fix the Optus version without affecting the other versions. This saves users having to download useless updates that don't apply to them. It also makes the code leaner and execution snappier, and allows application customisation specific to the mobile carrier's website. For example, Optus Mobile Usage has more options than the Virgin one because the Optus website allows access to different information. Keep in mind that updates can’t be released as soon as they are developed as they must go through the Apple approval process.

The Optus website shows what cap plan you are on, so it should be possible to derive the cap information from the plan name rather than have users manually enter their cap value. Wrong. Optus cap plan names vary a lot. So rather than hard-coding the plan names and mapping them to fixed values, the app allows the user to enter in the values themselves. This does cause a minor annoyance (you only have to do it once when you set up the app), but it is probably better than the app not working at all when Optus comes up with a new plan name or decides to change the value of existing plan names.

Not at the moment. If in the future Optus makes this data available, the app will likely be updated to incorporate this information.

The app downloads your usage information from the Optus website. The Optus website does NOT maintain a real-time status of your cap usage. Instead, the website is periodically updated to refresh your usage. The period between updates on the Optus side is totally up to Optus. You can verify that the app is getting data correctly from the website by comparing the values with the website (remember to add 10 percent GST). If you would like to see the exact values the app sees from the Optus servers, then click the blue arrow on the main screen to see the Usage Details screen. This can help you identify whether the Optus website itself has updated its values or not.

The cycle progress is calculated based on the reset date you enter on the configuration screen. The call/data/SMS usage, however, is retrieved directly from the Optus servers. So it's possible that the data from the Optus servers does not represent your real-time usage. This is because Optus periodically update your usage online and it takes time for them (sometimes up to a few days) to reset the values when your cycle has reset. You can verify this yourself by going to the Optus website and examining the values. If you would like to see the exact values the app sees from the Optus servers, then click the blue arrow on the main screen to see the Usage Details screen. This can help you identify whether the Optus website itself has updated its values or not. Also see Question 15.

This can happen if your iPhone had issues during the update process. A crash on the iPhone can cause the application data to become corrupt. In order to clear the corrupt data, you will need to delete the application from your iPhone then resync with iTunes to reinstall the application. Once the application is reinstalled, you will need to re-enter your Optus login details to view your usage data.