New mobile plans keep Telstra in front of the pack – with more value and included data
Filed under: Android, customers, innovation, mobile handsets, mobile internet, mobile phone, smart phones, SMS, social media
The Economist observed last year that: “In the grand scheme of telecoms history, mobile phones have made a bigger difference to the lives of more people, more quickly, than any previous technology.”1
A big statement but one that reflects what we all know – Australians’ use of the mobile phone has been insatiable: be it for calling, then texting and now applications and content over your phone.
To keep pace with this appetite for mobile calls/internet over your phone, we’ve improved our range of Next G™ mobile plans, which will be available from tomorrow.
The changes relate to our consumer post-paid Cap Plans and the ones we call Ultimate Plans. These new plans will provide customers with generous call and SMS allowances, along with new and increased included data.
In summary, the new consumer plans include:
- Increased included value compared to the previous Cap and Ultimate Plans;
- Flexibility to use your included voice calls and SMS to any network in Australia;
- Data allowance included for the first time in all Cap Plans and substantially increased for Ultimate Plans;
- Retention of 30 second charge blocks, while some competitors charge in 60 second increments.
Cap Plans give customers an included dollar value for standard calls and messages to any Australian network. This provides great flexibility as you can use your allocation in any combination of included calls and SMS – it’s entirely up to you.
Ultimate Plans provide a nominated allowance for both standard voice calls and SMS to any Australian network before customers commence to use an additional included amount of allowance for these calls, so they really suit customers who use their included voice call and SMS at consistent levels each month.
All of our Cap and Ultimate Plans now also include a data allowance, so you can check emails on your new HTC Desire, browse the mobile internet for the latest news and check sports results. And if you’re worried you might go over your budget – we can help you keep an eye on costs by sending you an SMS when you reach 80 and 100 per cent of your included data allowance.
Here are a few of the highlights:
Our new $49 Cap Plan includes $400 of standard calls and texts to any Australian network each month. As an additional bonus, we’ve also introduced 200MB of data in the plan.
The $79 Cap Plan includes up to $750 worth of included usage each month, and we’ve also included 500MB of data in the plan.
The $129 Cap Plan includes 1000MB of data and $1500 of included usage each month – this is an extra $600 of standard calls and texts compared to the previous $129 cap.
And we’ve added a new $35 Ultimate Plan with great standard included usage (up to 100 voice call minutes and 100 SMS to any Australian network), 30MB of data, as well as an additional $30 included value each month. This plan is suitable for low data users, such as those who mainly use their phone to check text-based emails.
Of course the new plans also come with some minimum prices over 24 months. They are $1176 (for the $49 Cap Plan), $1896 (for the $79 Cap Plan), $3096 (for the $129 Cap Plan) and $840 (for the $35 Ultimate Plan).
With plans offering a broad range of voice and data combinations, we’re confident that our customers will find one that suits their needs.
Most of our new plans also include a range of $0 upfront handsets (on 24 month contracts), or alternatively customers can choose from a wide range of handsets using our flexible Mobile Repayment Option (MRO). You may also qualify for an MRO bonus credit, which, depending on the plan you choose, can provide up to $30 per month towards the cost of the handset (that’s up to $720 over 24 months).
Our customers have been telling us that they’d like better value from our mobile and broadband services and we’ve been listening. On top of the new post-paid mobile plans, we’ve also made pricing changes across a range of products including fixed broadband, wireless broadband, prepaid mobiles, post-paid Browsing Packs and we’ve also introduced new Home Bundles.
By combining an eligible new Cap Plan or Ultimate Plan with a Telstra Home Bundle on a single bill for 24 months, you will receive an additional $10 off your mobile plan monthly access fee. And by combining a $49 or above Cap Plan with a Telstra Home Bundle you will receive free family calling from your home phone to up to 4 other services on the same account.
Of course, all Telstra Cap Plan and Ultimate Plan customers get the benefit of Telstra’s Next G™ network – Australia’s largest and fastest national mobile network.
- More information about the new mobile plans for consumers, including a highlight of their key features such as prices and included values.
- Details of the new mobile plans for business.
See here for more detail and terms and conditions about Telstra’s bundles.
I look forward to reading what you think about our new offers.
i was a previous customer on the old $49.00 cap since apr 2009 and same as a few people that i know we all were on the same plan we had rang telstra up and got transfered over to the newer caps with bonus handset telstra had waiverd the contracts on all of them with new phones
i was on the $39 plan for my hip-top for 4 years and a mouth ago telstra dis sided to cut my hole plan and delete my contacts and stop me from going on the internet im starting to really think about getting ride of telstra and go to someone else that contacts you when they are cutting your plan of… it sucks
Hi there – Can someone tell me what is included in the $29 Next G Cap Plan. My mother signed up for this a couple of months ago and so far she has received two high bills and has hardly used her mobile! There is nothing on the Telstra website stating what is included in this plan??
Hi Michelle. I’ve passed on your details to CS and asked them to answer your question. You should get a call soon.
Brendan O’Keefe [T-EX Customer Engagement Manager]
Brendan can you please tell us all why Telstra does not advertise the $29 NextGCap plan along with its other cap plans? People on lower incomes like myself on an age pension and who cannot reach the $49 cap need to be transparenty advised as to the availability of this plan, I only discovered the $29 plan after a lot of effort. Q. why can’t Telstra be more transparent?
Hi Mark. here’s a response for you. While Telstra’s core offers start at the $49 Cap, we maintain additional plans which may suited to some customers over others. Telstra maintains a list of most core offers online at Telstra.com, with mobile plans starting at $20 per month as well as our prepaid offers, but in order to simplify, not all niche offers are communicated here. Customers are encouraged in all cases to have a conversation with our mobile sales professionals in our stores or through our call centres to find the plan which suits their usage and needs.
Just signed up to the $49.00 cap plan after several exhausting phone call sessions from one of Peter Jamieson’s wonderful new customer service representatives – and after totally misleading me on how this was tied into a total bundled package, I now am the proud owner, or debtor to a two year plan, with no bundling what so ever – it is now impossible to talk directly to anyone of substance in the wonderful world of Peter Jamieson’s Customer Service and Sales Team – they have my money and do not wish to call back to sort out the confusion and mis-representation.
Why why why do I ask myself why I fell for the old 3 card trick of Australia’s largest telco?
Am I happy – not at all.
Been on the telstra website & cannot find anything on the $29 cap plans or the $35 Ultimate Plan. Are these well hidden on the site or is telstra not wanting consumers on these.
I am not with Telstra but was looking at swapping over but the plans on offer on the website seem to be overpriced.
Hi Rhonda,
Yes have had the same problem, the members plans were not suitable, but in my search for a plan that was closer to my needs and offered much better monthly value, I was finnaly put onto a NEXT G $29 CAP PLAN (included value $150 plus 30mb) why Telstra do not advertise this plan is beyond me!!they also include monthly $10 MRO bonus towards a new handset.
Hi
I used to have a 3 prepaid sim for my ipad but after rubbish service i changed to telstra and am loving the service i get. Would love to change my 3 Phone to Telstra too however Telstra do not seem to offer any free international minutes in any of their plans? The only reason i stay with 3 is because of the free minutes i get and seeing as 25% of the population was born overseas it seems like a good idea to offer this?
Agreed, i have tried to change my cap plan to these new plans and have been told that i cannot get the new plan without paying the exit fee, unfortunataly i cannot leave telstra as i live in a remote area. I wonder if i am allowed to increase my cap to a higher level without paying??
I re-contracted my plan in May 2010 to one of the ‘new’ $79 cap plans with the MRO credit. What i want to know is if i again re-contract to the $99 cap will i have to pay an ETC as i would like to get an iPhone 4?
Hi Kathryn, You’d need to call 13 2200. Depends on your particular plan. They can advise you. Brendan
My wife and I recently went to the Telstra Bondi Junction shop to change over our phones, as the contracts had expired and we wanted to upgrade. We decided on the $49 Plan with a HTC Wildfire phone. WOW! What a BAD experience!
After we lined up to speak with an attendant for 15 minutes, we were told that they could not see us for a further one and a half hours. We could not wait that that long, so we put the purchase on hold. We searched the Telstra website for deals online and found the same deal online so purchased two phones through the online system. We expected just the $49 Plan to be charged but we received a call from Amex Fraud who highlighted TWO purchases of $485 were processed, so they rang us. Well, so begins the SAGA of retrieving my money back from Telstra. My wife calls at 4:50pm and we don’t get off the phone until 8:30pm – yep, nearly 4 hrs! And no resolution! We get sent from pillar to post, or should I say from Australia to India to Philipines and no-one could reverse the charge! Not to mention having to recite the same story FIVE times to different people! Personally, I am going to cancel my Foxtel, mobile phones and landline this week and move to Optus – I suggest you consider the same…..
Hi Paul. Do you still need help with your charge back and plans? If you can use this form to send me your account number and a contact number, I’ll have a local specialist call you asap.
Hi Paul – When you bought your phone on the website how much did you pay? When i bought mine you can buy the phone outright ($480 plus $5 delivery) or $0 plus $5 delivery. The $49 for the plan was not charged to my card at all. This would have been shown during the checkout process with exactly how much would be charged to your card. By the sounds of it you purchased two phones outright rather than with a contract.
Hi Brendan,
Many thanks for your response, always appreciated,
you also went on to state,
(Telstra maintains a list of most core offers online at Telstra.com, with mobile plans starting at $20 per month as well as our prepaid offers,) The $29 Gcap plan is no less worthy, to be a niche core offer, an affordable plan and an advertised plan as the others. There are many valued customers like myself and many others, that can best afford the $29 Cap plan, especially considering my overall monthly committment with Testra over 24 months.
I feel that your points made , do not give full transparency if the truth is known to customers, (an as an under the shelf plan)
and one that we should not need to phone you for, especially when we the public and customer look at (YOUR) web site and (YOUR) advertisements, why advertise at all? perhaps Brendan you may be able to look at my end of the market in regards to the $20/35 Cap provisions, the cap plans are for me a more viable option, in my case the $29Gcap plan , may I suggest a new $29 Freedom plan, advertised, bringing Telstra to the fore with other providers, would appreciate you putting all of this forward, and as stated I very much appreciate recieving a response, I had all but given up, I also hope that the new 4G roll out will finnally give some justice and fairness to the top family wireless data available from the current and appalling 12GB.
Kindest Regards, Mark.
While I realise it’s a while since this comment has been made I also have had a lovely discussion with one of Telstra’s customer SERVICE representatives this morning. Wanting to downgrade my $49 cap plan to a $20 plan I was told they no longer exist and but I could certainly have the wonderful $29 cap plan which the CSR explained to me. I thought this was appropriate as the phone will be used mainly by my 13 year old daughter now, but when I went on to tell the operator that I was on a bundle she disappeared then came back on to tell me that she had given me the wrong information and that the $29 bundle that she had explained to me for the last ten minutes no longer exists! It had also disappeared! The cheapest plan I could have was the exact one I was on already $49 a month! Every single time I deal with the company it takes hours on the phone, almost every time they stuff the account up and if it wouldn’t cost me a fortune in cancellation fees I would be changing providers in a nanosecond.
Nikki.
Brendan I noticed the following link as follows
Mark Ereira comments on
New mobile plans keep Telstra in front of the pack – with more value and included data
My comments did not totally relate to the hyped up above statement, but related to the issue of a more transparent expression of the $29 Gcap mobile plan, having said this I am impressed with the higher end Gcap mobile plans, from the $49 cap Telstra in this regard are the best value currently available and I commend Telstra, my issue and as I stated deals with the need to make known in your advertising the lower entry next Gcap plan for myself and others, that find the members plan to be insufficient and expensive for their needs
if you do have the $29nextgcap plan available, The one that I am on, I feel that it would benefit Telstra and a customer market to boast about it in the same way as your currently lowest advertised cap, the $49 cap, provide customer choice, had I not known through much research and many phone calls I would have not been able to full avil myself of a Telstra Mobile plan, I did it to be able to receive and make more affordable the lower wireless broadband plan, and the actual mobile value in terms of making calls to my family was insufficient $20 worth of calls compared to my now $29 plan and $150 call value, need I say more, your $29 next gcap plan is also good value and should be an advertised alternative.
Kindest Regards Mark.
Report from SMH.
WIRELESS connections are growing at a faster pace than any other form of internet service in Australia, official figures show.
The surge in popularity comes as the federal government pushes ahead with plans to roll out a super-fast national broadband network.
While the government says fixed-line optical fibres are the way of the future, consumers have other ideas.
Take-up for wireless internet jumped by 50 per cent in the year to December 2010, pushing access numbers to 4.2 million.
According to this report Wireless Broadband now represents 40% of the Broadband market.
So in the face of these ongoing reports can you please Tell us David Thodey what you intend if anything to do in providing a better top data value for us wireless users who were told that you were unable to provide a fixed line or port( affordability again?) now with the increasing wireless market, if you intend increasing the data value in the near future, EG: through4G at least talk to your customers.
I am left wondering why it takes so long for a reply to correspondence posted here? for Australia’s largest Telco this is poor customer service in your stated aims to improve what has been an abysmal attempt, surely Brendan you have others within your structure besides yourself that can answer and respond, I do appreciate your efforts, but it would seem an overload for one person to do this job.
An article regarding 4G and possible impacts.
The technology can provide many Australians with faster data speeds, high-quality video-conferencing and faster response times when using mobile applications or accessing the internet.
“It can also help Telstra meet demand for mobile data, which is doubling every year as customers move to adopt data-hungry smartphones, mobile modems and tablets,” Thodey added.
At the company’s half-yearly results last week, Thodey revealed that the company had added nearly 1 million new mobile customers in the last half of 2010, with almost 70 per cent of these customers using smartphones.
The question remains from your unhappy and discriminated against wireless broadband users, when and how soon can we expect to see the glaring poor cousin wireless data improved from the miserly and over priced 12GB top plan improved, many suggestions have been put forward to your deaf ears, and to arrogant cut and paste responses, can you at least reassure us that by years end with 4G we can expect a fairer and better data allowance.
Dear Peter Jamieson,
Telstra has introduced a new automated calling system – where an automated voice calls my home phone when bills are \overdue\. Problem is, the automated machine KEEPS calling me. I have called Telstra 3 times now and complained: no effect. I’ve emailed Telstra twice: no effect.
Last week I had my youngest in hospital, when I brought her home the phone rang ALL DAY with this automated voice calling us from Telstra.
I believe up until now I have been very patient.
Can you explain why this system can’t be turned off and why is it necessary to call my home rather than send a \reminder notice\ as is the norm.
It’s an ongoing intrusion into our home life.
When I ring the Telstra complaints number it’s someone overseas who clearly has no clue what I am talking about.
Any other customers have this experience?
Regards,
Hi Helen, Sorry to hear you’ve had this annoying call problem. I’d like to help. If you can use this form to email me your account and contact numbers, I will have a local rep call you. Brendan
Re; earlier comment…by the way…my bill is not overdue.
Regards
HP
It’s about time Telstra fixed their pay your bill over the Internet using credit card. Paying by Amex just times out (every time) after inputting account number, bill number, Amex details, amount to pay, etc. Select pay and all you get is the stupid dots going round and round in a circle, ad-infinitum.
I’ve no desire to give Telstra a blank cheque to debit my account direct!!!!!
Maybe Peter Jamieson is as impotent to fix this problem as anybody else in this organisation.
Totally peed off.
This happens whether you click on the link on the Telstra invoice received via email or whether you go yo the Telstra website and select to pay bill and separately input all the relevant account information, credit card info and amount to pay.
hi Brendan, I’ve noticed in one of ur answers that telstra customers are encouraged to check with the stores or enquiry over the phone. well, I needed some customer service assistance, was after 6pm when the telstra stores were closed and I dared calling the number listed in one of the pamphlets received in the letter box. Big mistake! The way the guy answered the phone made me feel like j was bothering him with my question… “did u have a look at our web?”…ah, well I obviously did and I couldn’t find the info I needed…few days before that I noticed mh credit just dissapeard …called them up…I got told I’ve been charged for some premium service I’ve never used.When I questioned the guy he says \ah, software glitch, it happens sometimes!\ so yeah, sometimes…we dint know when so keep an eye
on ur credit! ….sad…sad…sad…plus the call centres are in philipinos now…hard to remember their names, sometime hard to understand them speaking!
Have you disconnected the Ultimate 2 plans, as I have only now just been informed? so much for communication?
or was it just $35 Ultimate plans? discontinued? I saw a web site with a HTC Desire phone on this plan, with $30 credit. please does anybody there know what is going on?
Hi.
I’m on the Telstra $49 cap which comes with $400 of monthly calls and text and 1GB of data. When I signed onto the plan I did not get a new phone which means I am now eligible for an upgrade/new phone. I signed onto the contract for 24 month by the way. I have now noticed that Telstra don’t offer the plan I signed on with. Am I still able to get an iPhone at a discounted price because I’m on a plan? My brother who got the same plan as me, on the same day was able to get the iPhone 4 for $200, can I still do this now?
Thanks.