This announcement from Telstra confuses me: We can already access email on pretty much any mobile phone these days, and I can’t picture most people wanting to check their SMS messages on their PC. So what’s the deal?
MyConnect is made up of three different parts: My Inbox, which is an online message, contact and calendar management service for all your various messages like email, sms, voicemail etc and is free; My Email which lets you access up to five different email accounts on your mobile for $7 a month (hang on, doesn’t the HTC Touch Diamond do that for free?) and MySync, which for $3 a month will backup all your contacts and calendars and synchronise it with MyInbox.
So essentially it’s like a MobileMe for Telstra customers. And it costs about the same too – for all the features you’re looking at $120 a year.
Aside from the obvious bitching about price, is this something any of you guys would be interested in? Or are there other, better solutions you’d prefer?
Telstra delivers an Australian first for consumers:
A unified messaging and email service for mobiles and PCsIn an Australian first, Telstra today launched MyConnect™, a next generation messaging suite for Next G™ and BigPond® customers that combines email, voicemail, picture messaging, SMS and multimedia communications in one secure, integrated online and mobile service.
Mr David Moffatt, Group Managing Director, Telstra Consumer, said MyConnect™ breaks down the traditional barriers between multiple messaging systems, allowing customers to manage their phone messages and emails from any compatible Next G™ mobile phone or online at BigPond.com.
“With MyConnect™, customers have access to a truly integrated mobile and online messaging system. Sending email on your Next G™ mobile phone is now as simple as sending an SMS – using a single messaging folder for easy access,” Mr Moffatt said.
“When a customer receives a picture message on their mobile phone and they are sitting at their PC using the internet, they can view the message on their computer screen in MyInbox. Similarly, if they’re out and about, they can still receive important emails on their Next G™ handset,” he said.
MyConnect™ includes three new integrated services:
MyInbox – an online one-stop shop: an online message, contact and calendar management centre where customers can access email, picture messaging, voicemail and videomail as well as send SMS, MMS and email – no subscription costs and access included in your Telstra or BigPond membership/plans.
MyEmail – email on the mobile: provides access to up to five existing email accounts, plus alerts of incoming mail on compatible Telstra Next G ™ mobile handsets – $7 per month.
MySync – backup & synchronise your contacts: full automatic daily backup of contacts from compatible Next G™ mobiles to a secure on-line website, and synchronisation with MyInbox. So if a customer loses, breaks or upgrades their mobile phone, their contacts are not lost and they can stay in touch – just $3 per month.Ms Holly Kramer, Group Managing Director, Telstra Product Management, said MyConnect™ brings customers closer to the people, information, accounts and devices they really care about.
“With MySync, customers also have the peace of mind of knowing that their important contact data is safe and easily recoverable if they lose, break or upgrade their mobile handset,” Ms Kramer said.
“Telstra’s product team pioneered this product for the Australian consumer market. The ingenuity of our people has brought to life our vision of easy one-click access to the information customers really want – on-line or on-mobile.”
MyConnect™ hosts all your MyInbox and other synchronised information in an online server, kept secure on Telstra’s networks. It is available now for Telstra Next G™, BigPond and Telstra.com customers. Customers can call 13 22 00 or go online www.telstra.com for further information.
[Telstra]
Dave
November 7, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Paying $3 a month to back up your contacts is a complete rip off; and what do you do if you set all this stuff up and then want to change phone companies?
Report PermalinkSteve McQuarrie
November 7, 2008 at 1:55 PM
I admit sometimes I use Skype to sms, just because…well I’m lazy. And it’s cheaper (bonus). I don’t think the sms feature is really all that fantastic and the rest of the features offered almost is the same as exchange server syncing, which mail2web do for free. So this new service is kind of…meh.
Report PermalinkDave Garver
November 7, 2008 at 2:28 PM
Have a look at Vodafone’s ZYB – http://www.zyb.com for backing up your contacts. It’s free and allows you to change handset and provider without any hassle (assuming ZYB supports your handset).
Report PermalinkS.
November 7, 2008 at 2:39 PM
I would rather have my anus extracted through my nose than purchase any ‘value add’ service off Telstra.
They are the king of nickle and dime fine print ripping off-ness.
Report PermalinkRICHARD
November 7, 2008 at 6:26 PM
I used to be able to view my emails for free from my touch diamond now its not a compatable phone for myemail. how do you complain to telstra about this ? I phones but had trouble finding anyone who understood the problem.
Report PermalinkTen
November 8, 2008 at 12:44 AM
@ S.
telstra will sell the exact right hook to do that with any purchase of a 36 month wireless broadband package
seriously, wake up people. telstra sells a superior product at a price reflective of its quality. Its like buying home brand vs a name brand, sure home brand will save you a few bucks but in the end, its gonna taste like cardboard
PS: every company in the world, from telstra to optus to mcdonalds will try to cross and upsell their customers, just because you experienced a telstra employee doing their job properly does not mean you should be spreading hate on the web
Report PermalinkJimmy
November 19, 2008 at 7:53 PM
What a debacle – lost my email on my iMate which was key reason for being Next G/Bigpond and the service on-line is so slow as to be useless – this is just dumb business – using your customers as guinea pigs is not leading edge and the system is extremel poor – who would let these guys even bid on a fast broadband system roll out – anger has turned to shopping for new provider – smart move guys – Telstra..the dumbest guys in the room?
Report PermalinkMatt
July 19, 2009 at 10:31 PM
Used to use the webnotes app for SMS. They flicked me to this.
Report Permalink1. It doesn’t work most of the time – error after error
2. When it might work (no errors) it is as slow as a wet weekend.
3. When you think it has worked and sent an SMS it mostly hasn’t.
4. When it works (testing by sms to self) it does not update its sent items list.
5. For me this is not a speed of connection issue as i live next to the exchange and get 22meg/sec on adsl 2+.
6. Tried both safari and firefox.
7. Telstra truly sucks and the shares deserve to drop through the floor. They are appalling at what they are supposed to be good at. Let them collapse and build something worthwhile from the wreckage.