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.
When will the Data Packs become more competitive in pricing?
These plans are great! but how bout some revision for prepaid browse packs I still don’t get why you offer 100MB for $10 then 200MB for $29… and what happened to the 4GB browse pack
Hope some changes can be made soon!
Keep up the good work
Telstra has always been competitive against the other carriers simply because of the technological superiority of its network compared with the competition.
However, these plans help Telstra to be more competitive in terms of what the end user pays. $49 for $400 cap value is roughly on par with what the competitors are offering, and the call rates and 30 second charging make this a very appealing offer.
The tired old line ‘but Telstra just costs too much’ just doesn’t hold much weight anymore.
I’m sure some people will complain about the small amount of included data, or the lack of included ‘value’. However, this isn’t the place to get stuck into a philosophical debate over what ‘value’ is included in cap plans, and how they compare.
Nice to see something positive.
However will existing customers on cap plans automatically get this (if not why not) or do they need to ask for it?
Thanks
Telstra wont update my $49 cap to the $400, they say they cant do it for existing customers, even though I didnt get a handset in my Cap, I am paying my phone off, I’m sick and tired of Telstra !!!
Hmmm they’re certainly a little more competitive but unfortunately now they’re better than the staff cap plan!
Any plans on updating those?
Unfortunately, if you are already on one of these plans and on a contract, you will need to see out your contract first before the new plan comes into effect.
Data packs were just improved the other week.
Rob
That should only be the case if you got a handset provided in the Cap Plan, if you are paying the handset off yourself like I am then I should have the freedom to change to whatever cap plan I like !!
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/telstra-and-optus-unveil-ipad-data-plans-20100509-ulxv.html
Oh so iPad users get over 10x the data for the same price. Yeah real fair.
Greg, who says that Telstra’s data packs are not competitive?
I get 1 gig of data for $19 a month on Telstra. For example, 1 gig of data costs $20 on 3.
I’d say Telstra are fairly competitive.
Can you sign up to these new plans if your account is on the old billing system? If not, what options do we have?
Hi Greg, new browsing pack pricing was introduced last week. There should be an update in one of the previous blog entries. More data is now included, a $20 500MB pack has been introduced and excess usage charges on some browsing packs have been reduced.
without getting into the detail of value Chris, this is a step forward for Telstra to being competitive with other mobile network operators.
It still is lacking the comparitive Telstra vs. other competitor data value by quota.
I would switch to telstra, if and only if they would compete with other suppliers. Until then, I will remain with my other network operators.
Telstra still the dearest telco.
Wanted to get an iphone they couldn’t even get near the competition.
I do agree with your point about coverage and accept that, however, i rarely leave metro areas.
I am on the old business billing system – I have been told it will take up to 2weeks without my number working to be transfered to the new billing system to get on the 55$ ultimate plan.
THis is obviously unacceptable and wish someone at telstra could provide some decent service…
That said the new plans are much better
good to see telstra are making a effort in the right direction.
thought they just missed the mark i think. would anyone really use $750 worth of calls and sms?
whats that.. something like 50 hours of calls or something crazy? but only 500mb of data?.. wrong way around,
or better yet.. they can keep $60 of my call and sms and ill use that for 3 packs of 1gb data.. now a plan with $690 of call and sms and over 3gb of data.. now we’re talkin’ B-)
I heard a rumour that one could get the HTC Desire for free with the $49 cap. Can anyone confirm this, and when it will be available from?
Cheers
So youre saying that ive waited 2 weeks for you guys to change your plans and “improve” them and then nothing but minimal difference happens.. great telstra Thanks. i mean people everywhere get unlimited plans why cant you guys get it and be even more competetive and honestly id wait another month if you guys get to change and have an unlimited data plan or something of that sort.
The other thing is who would take a 30mb plan on a desire.Plus i can see that Telstra has changed their plans alot i mean instead of 150mb for the 55$ we get 49$ for 200mb, i honestly expected more.
Will existing customers on cap plans automatically get this (if not why not) or do they need to ask for it? Will there be any ETC. I have been getting a lot of mixed messages from people regarding this, could your clear it up Peter.
Cheers
After being hung up on the first time, I got told I can’t have these until the end of the year because I’m on an old billing system. Fantastic, I cant imagine telling my customers to call back in 7 months to buy a product or service.
I guess port out and back in is the only option. Ridiculous.
no very happy. an existing customer with all my services with telstra and cant take up a new cap cause my acct no hasnt migrated across…
Excellent. The Telstra cap plans are finally catching up with other competitors.
I moved to the new $49 Next G cap plan that includes 200MB of data and $400 call credit and does away with the ridiculous iphone $80 plan I’m on (which only had $70 calls).
It also means I get 200MB data in the plan! No more $10 data pack required.
Nice one Telstra. I actually save $40 per month for a better service!!!!
Now you just need to get your data plans *consistent* across NextG mobile/ipad/wireless.
For those of us that are already on a cap contract I would have thought that at least we have the option of transferring to the new packages even if we needed to restart our existing 12/24 mth contracts
Cheers
I also just took up a renew offer (http://telstra.com.au/renewmobile) for a new handset and 24 months new contract. It was on the $49 cap plan, but I got the old plans (pre 10 may). I spoke to a consultant on 125111 and was told that I could take the new cap plans – but had to start paying $20 per month for the handset – so much for a renew offer!!!
However I left him be, and rang the renewmobile 1800 number and asked nicely “I took up a $49 cap plan including handset which I received last week – any chance this can be on the new $49 cap plan with $400 of calls and 200MB data?”. Sure enough it COULD BE done….
I’m supremly happy that after a simple phone call (to the right call centre mond you) I’ve save myself $50 per month and hugely increased my call credit.
Kudos to Telstra for your new aggressive pricing.
@ Luke. You don’t automatically get these plans. If you’re on a Member plan currently you can change to the new cap (same or higher value as current) without penalty. If you’re on a Phone plan (subsidised handset) and still in contract then ETC apply before you can change.
Grrrr. Having preregistered interest in a new HTC I received an email telling me it was now available on an $85 Ultimate Plan. So of course I immediately rang to order one and after some debate on whether to stay on my old $99 cap and pay an MRO or whether to take the $85 Ultimate Plan I (with some SIGNIFICANT encouragement from the phone sales staff) chose the latter. Now within a week they have upped the included value of these plans MASSIVELY. I spoke to someone at mobiles and requested a change and was told suck it (well actually that nothing could be done). NOT AT ALL HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!! Feels like those proactive and interested enough in the flash new droid phone were deliberately ripped off.
Oh good news, upon ringing the renewmobile number I was told I CAN go to a $79 or $99 cap plan if I want to pay a $69 per month contract exit fee for 24 months. GRRRR!!!! I will resent Telstra, this contract and god forbid this phone for the whole 24 months I am forced to endure it.
Went to renew my $40 plan and get a new free handset last week and was advised to wait until this week as new plans were being released. Went to a TLife shop to renew yesterday and was told that the $20, $30, $40, etc plans are no longer available and I would have to pay $60+ per month to get a ‘free’ handset. Didn’t see that anywhere in the advertising. Settled on a $29 cap plan and MRO repayments ($45 total) to get the equivalent of a free phone on the old plan. Interestingly the $29 cap plan isn’t advertised and the salesperson didn’t know about it until she asked her supervisor. The Telstra web site also still has the old plans up.
OK so the value is better than it was before – more call time and data is now 16.6c per megabyte rather than $1, but competitors still provide more for the same cost eg Optus’ 5$ data pack provides 74Mb compared with Telstra’s 30 Mb, and they have zero dollar phones on their cap plans
Wouldn’t it be great to see Telstra leapfrog the competition rather than always playing catchup….
How is it that Optus can offer much higher data and free handsets on Cap plans, but Telstra cant?
Interesting that Rocky was told last week to wait because new plans were being released and that my local Telstra Shop told me they would have told me the same. Because every person I have spoken to over the phone in my vain attempts to get moved to the new plan have told me they only were told the morning the plans were released. Sound like one for the ombudsmen to decide on.
Hi Katrina, I sent you an email yesterday. Please respond so I can help you get this issue sorted.
Cheers, Brendan.
@ Chris. I don’t think the Desire would be free on the $49 cap. I got mine cheap through a business deal with the $49 cap, but it wasn’t free. Still, it was cheaper. But I can definitely vouch that $779 is worth it. It is much better than the iPhone 3G I had before, and those were more than $800 new.
for the new cap plans dont come into effect till the 22-05-2010 re old billing account numbers it takes about a month to go across to the new billing system due to ur billing period
Looks like customers in my circumstance will be looked after with the new plans. Thanks Brendan and Adam! Very happy with the outcome if not the way I got there
And the HTC Desire has been a joy to use, work and play with. Just hoping I can resolve a battery life issue.
Glad to be of assistance Katrina. Enjoy the HTC Desire. Brendan
I’m really pleased that Telstra is finally providing an option with a reasonable amount of included data but why is it that I’m on the $79 cap yet can’t be moved to the new version of it? If I want to recontract & go on that plan I have to pay a fortune to do so. Upshot is if I want to stay with Telstra & have data I pay through the nose yet again. I really think Optus is looking better by the day. I can pay to move from Telstra instead of to stay with them…
I’m another person who’s stuck on the Old Billing system – yesterday I was told at T-Life that they are unable to sell me 2 Desires on the new plans, basically because I’m a loyal customer on the old billing system. They said I could get a new phone number and do it that way, but I don’t want that.
I’m going to try another store today but it doesn’t look good.
The person at the store acknowledged that I could walk in to any other carriers store and get a phone with my existing number, I just can’t do it within Telstra.
The mind boggles.
Hi, i called telstra today to see i’m eligible for the new cap plan, but they said i was on old billing system, they won’t be able to connect me to new system??? i’m with telstra home, mobile and BP, that’s what i hear from them…..i’m very upset what i received being a loyal customer. I guess i’m not the first one to faced that.
$55.43×23 months cancellation fees that’s i being told if i want to change to new plan.
I bought the Desire about a week ago, and so far I’m more than impressed. However, I have an issue with the data usage. If I log on using the internet, it says I only have a few hundred kilobytes, but I’m on the new $49 cap? Is it possible for Telstra to make an app for the android phones where you can look at your data usage, calls, text etc. all in the one place? Something similar to Bjango’s consume for the iPhone. (http://bit.ly/2OSIVD)
Cheers
I too am an “old but loyal” Telstra customer with a 10 digit acct #. There have been a few posts about not being able to take up the new deals. So far no comment from any Telstra rep. Why not? Because you have no answer to this ridiculous situation? I have all my telecomms with Telstra, home phone internet foxtel and 2 mobile accts, and this makes me want to take them all to other carriers. iiNet, optus and Fox would all probably appreciate my business, but not the big T. So what’s your solution Mr Telstra rep? What are you going to do to retain my business? In this new age of improved plans and customer service do you have a solution for me (and all those others too)? I await my reply…
It is absolutely ridiculous that existing Telstra customers, who have stuck by Telstra when they were not as competitive as any other carriers have to stay on their old contracts (which cost more money and are worth hundreds of dollars less). As an existing customer to Telstra I should be rewarded for staying by the company, whereas any one off the street can walk into a Telstra shop and get on the new caps and be better off for it. I have been quoted over $600 as a termination fee. Very unimpressed Telstra, and I will not be sticking by them anymore when my contract is finished, this is the last straw.
Megan
Hi Megan, I was just notified that you have been helped out and you are now on the new plan you were hoping for. Enjoy.
Brendan
my issue haven’t been fixed, i’m still waiting Telstra customer service call as they suppose to call me last week…..
I to am on a old plan i pay 65.00 a month on a buisness plan although my call to all telstra numbers are free apart from the connection charge and my text messages to telstra mobiles are free i got told this plan is no longer available mmm good to find out of someone other than telstra i have till jan to run on my contract i wanted to update my old phone but got told i would have to pay over 300 dollars to terminate the old contract mmmm me thinks will stay on old contract since my calls are free and text messages till my contract runs out then will by new mobile with new carrier or just by cheap phone and stick the sim in it no need to sign up for another two years although i would have done if i could have just transferred my old account free of charge since i have been loyal to telstra with home phone and mobile and wireless internet for a few years now why get penalised just to renew a contract
I’m in the same boat as Boon Chia, I was contacted once to by a Telstra rep to fix my issue and promised a return call in ~24 hours. It’s been well over a week now and I’ve tried contacting by email and phone to no avail… got my hopes up
I am currently on a $49 Cap plan and was very DISAPPOINTED to find out that current, loyal Telstra customers do not automatically get upgraded to these new plans and have to break their contract to move onto the new plans. Telstra should reward current customers by automatically rolling them onto these new plans (as all other phone providers currently do).
Very unhappy customer who will not be getting another contract with Telstra as they obviously dont think its worth retaining current customers.
Received a bill today
National Direct Dialled $812.47
$150 Telstra Mobile Bonus $18.73CR
$550 Standard Cap $524.38CR
Data $10/150MB $10.00
Cap 99 Mobile Plan $99.00
That’s my mobile charge this months $378.36
If i’m on the new $99 Mobile Cap Plan will be paying $99,
See what is the different between the new plan, that’s why Telstra don’t bother changing the system for their old customer.
I still waiting the call for Telstra customer service which promise to call me back within a day or 2, but already more than a week since then.
Telstra customer service sux, I called 125111 to change my old $49 cap plan to the new $49 cap and was no way as I had 16 months left on my contract. Cannot see why they will not roll over existing customers to the new plans.
I will pay the exit fee and go to a more friendly carrier and take all my considerble business elsewhere including the company I work for.
NOT A HAPPY CUSTOMER
Bill, i know Optus can roll over their billing system if they have a new plan for consumers, why Telstra won’t bother to keep existing customer happy rather than “”New plan for new customer”, even JB HIFI, they give $200 voucher for New Customer signed up with telstra, only $100 for existing Telstra customer to sign up their plan.
I’m still everyday waiting Telstra to contact me again since the last conversation with them, promised to sort something out with me.
hey guys. anyone no how many mins of calls the $400 call and sms on the new $49 cap plan. and also how many sms’s?
I too am an existing customer (for 15 years) on the $49 cap who has been told I am not eligible for the extra call allowance and data available in the new version of the cap. It is unbelievable that Telstra is not allowing existing customers to transfer to the new cap without penalty. I will not be renewing my contract with Telstra once it has expired and hope that other dissatisfied customers do the same.
Nice to see my comment was deleted! The truth hurts doesn’t it Telstra!!
Hi Sue, I sent you an email. Only reason your comments were not approved was the ALL CAPS in the other two. I’ve explained in your email. Feel free to repost without all caps. Brendan.