The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission claims that the merger of TPG and Vodafone has led to increased prices in the market were recently refuted by TPG Telecom CEO Inaki Berroeta. ACCC chair Rod Sims made the claims about prices in service. Sims cited these claims during his call for a debate about stronger antitrust laws in Australia.

During ACCAN’s annual conference, Berroeta said that: “Our customers are receiving better value and enhanced services because of the merger – and this will continue. Since the merger last year, nearly all of our mobile plans have lower prices or contain significantly more data inclusions. On Vodafone for example, we have just launched Australia’s only unlimited mobile plan with uncapped speeds. And on iiNet, customers can get 40 Gigabytes for just $15 a month for the first six months on a Mobile SIM Only Plan. If they bundle this with an active iiNet internet plan they get 120 Gigabytes.”

According to Berroeta, Vodafone’s ability to deploy 5G would have been limited without the merger. He said that: “Our customers can also get a great value alternative to the NBN on our 4G and 5G home wireless plans. All of this, and more, is being delivered at the same time we are investing billions of dollars in our mobile network and acquiring a 5G spectrum. This level of investment simply would not have been possible without the merger – and the clear winners are consumers.”

To allow customers on current phone plans to access the 5G network, Vodafone won’t charge a premium. The company will also offer the first month free on its 5G Home Internet service to encourage adoption with its existing customers and pique the interest of new ones.

On the other hand, to encourage further adoption of the company’s narrowband IoT network, TPG is working with various industries. According to Berroeta, the company has worked with water companies to develop IoT solutions to help save water and lower the customer’s utility bills. This is one of the ways the telco has worked with other industries.

He then said that: “Our IoT network is also connecting and remotely monitoring around 3m sleep apnea machines, keeping track of beer kegs and monitoring commercial refrigeration systems to ensure food safety.”

The company also worked with banks to address cases of fraud: “Our fraud and customer security teams tracked these cases for our customers and worked with the banks and New South Wales Police. Our reports to the police resulted in the creation of a designated New South Wales Police strike force. A year later, this led to the arrest and successful prosecution of several syndicate ring leaders,” Berroeta further added.