Hundreds of Belong customers are buying grey market mobile data. Searching "Belong data" on eBay reveals countless listings for data at prices that significantly undercut the telco, but violate its terms of service.
At time of writing, one seller is offering a 100GB pack for just $8.99. A larger 700GB pack is available for $44.99, and discounts are available to customers who buy in bulk. For comparison, Belong itself charges $45 per month for its 100GB plan. Customers who require additional data can pay $10 for 5GB through official channels.
Belong is one of the few Australian telcos that offers data gifting. Any Belong customer can gift data to another Belong customer up to five times per month. While this feature is designed to be used to send data to friends and family, sellers have used it to start a cottage industry.
One of the largest Belong data resellers on eBay has sold almost 9,000 data gifts according to eBay's public metrics, and has 100% positive feedback from over 1,500 ratings. Listings make it clear that buyers need to be existing Belong customers, but come with disclaimers warning not to buy if needed immediately.
"The data will be gifted to your nominated Belong mobile number after payment, usually within an hour during business hours," reads the listing. "However, as this is a manual process, delays do happen if I am busy. It can also take up to five hours for Belong to register the transfer, so do not buy if the data is time critical!"
A smaller seller offering Belong data also has 100% positive feedback from 529 reviews, but also lists items like board shorts and men's underwear.
WhistleOut reached out to several Belong data resellers on eBay, but they all declined to comment.
There are also a handful of sellers offering Belong data gifts on markets like Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace, but these appear to be operating on a smaller scale. One seller, for instance, says they're porting out and simply getting rid of their data. Another is selling data at more realistic prices: 1GB for $4. That's worse value than Belong's $10 top-up, but naturally a more affordable purchase for someone looking for a little bit of extra data to make it through the month.
Selling 1GB for $4 is something any Belong customer could technically do and make a profit. Its mobile plans start at $29 per month with 25GB, which works out to be $1.16 per gigabyte. It's not as easy to understand how the larger sellers on eBay are operating.
A Belong spokesperson told WhistleOut they suspect some are "purchasing large quantities of data during our generous promotions" to resell. Belong has regularly run double data offers, and supports unlimited data banking, making it easy to stockpile. The Belong spokesperson confirmed the company has no official partnership with the eBay sellers.
An industry source told WhistleOut that telcos who sell SIM cards through outlets like Woolworths, 7-11, and Australia Post have much cheaper wholesale prices. While this would require setting up a new service for each SIM card, there is no legal limit to the number of plans a single person can hold with a telco in Australia.
In addition, Belong mobile broadband plans include as much as 400GB for $70 per month as a standard inclusion. This is the best data-for-dollar value of any Belong plan, and when coupled with wholesale pricing, starts to offer a plausible explanation for how resellers are offering data so cheaply. Belong mobile broadband customers can gift data to mobile customers.
Reselling data is of course a violation of Belong's acceptable use policy, regardless of whether it's being done on a large or small scale. Purchasing it isn't, but the Belong spokesperson discouraged it.
"Reselling our service to a third party is strictly against our acceptable use policy," said the spokesperson.
"While these offers may look appealing, we strongly discourage our customers go down this avenue to purchase additional data. Given the data is distributed by third parties, we can’t guarantee that they will receive the data."
"We suggest customers stick to purchasing data directly through Belong to ensure customers receive the data they have paid for. For existing customers in need of additional data, we’d suggest exploring a one-off data top-up or switching phone plans to a more suitable, great value plan that meets all your needs. Belong is committed to offering competitive and affordable options for those looking to top up their data plans, all of which come with the assurance of receiving the data you’ve paid for, something that the grey market doesn’t offer."
It's unlikely that any grey market seller is making serious money from the pursuit, however. At time of writing, the largest seller on eBay had only received feedback for 21 items sold in the past month. It’s also worth noting that only a small portion of Belong's mobile customers are actively participating in the grey market economy. In 2020, Belong had over 400,000 mobile customers, but it hasn’t provided a public update since.
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