If you’re thinking of signing up to a Telstra post paid contract this week, it might be prudent to stop and wait for a week or so – according to a source within Telstra, the Telco is planning on launching new post-paid plans on March 29.
The timing of the plans coincides with discussions on Whirlpool about current Telstra plans ceasing to be available after March 28. According to our source the new plans, which are to be dubbed “Freedom Connect”, will include unlimited national SMS messages in all plans over $59 a month.
There will be five plans on offer, starting at $49 a month, as broken down in the table below:
The Freedom Connect plans are set to replace the current set of cap plans, which looks like a bit of an improvement on the included data and call value front. It will also alleviate some of the concerns from potential customers wary of the move to per-minute billing.
Telstra are yet to officially announce the plans, but given we’re only a week away from the launch date, expect that information to be made available any day now.
Brad Thurkettle
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 1:37 PMHandset prices will go up, I’ve heard a 16GB iPhone 4 on a $49 cap will go from current $9/mth to $15/mth with new plans.
Not much of a difference but there isn’t much benefit in new plan.
Also Telstra gets Visual Voicemail but will charge $5/mth for it
wsDK_II
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 2:02 PMMost handsets will not go up – remember, the price of an iPhone needs to take into account the Apple warrenty – the only company to have circumvented the ACCC rules for warrenty.
All other phones will remain mostly within the $0 – $15 MRO option, and Telstra have ALOT of new phones coming online in the next 4 months, so the iPhone is not the only choice.
anton
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 5:50 PMWhy does the price have to include Apple’s warranty? Apple cover the cost of the warranty not Telstra. Also they have much better service than Telstra. A friend purchased an iPhone 4 and the Telstra shop didn’t have any covers he liked. While waiting for one to arrive that he had ordered he dropped his phone cracking the screen. He took it back to the Telstra shop who informed him even though it was only a week old they couldnt do anything for him. The salesman even said “you should have just bought a case of us”. He went to the apple store where they replaced it immediatly
Steve Tran
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 7:53 PMWhen you pay the ‘handset price’, you’re not paying this money to Apple. This is just so Telstra etc can otherwise advertise a cheaper (and somewhat fraudulent plan), it’s somewhat like a subsidy.
Hence when you return your phone at the Genius Bar, the money you’re paying Telstra is what’s replacing it. Ie. Telstra IS the one taking your money for it. Apple’s fine either way.
But yes. When will Telcos realise that people want data, not minutes/SMS. Depending on your usage, email can largely supplant general texting.
Stephen Parry
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 1:06 AMSo your saying its Telstra’s fault for him dropping the phone?
He didnt like a cover they were offering so he waited…
Um its his fault if he didnt buy one, he is stupid for waiting for one.
Nothing to do with Telstra’s customer service…you break something its tough titties mate.
Jem Ison
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 4:30 PMAgreed, People need to take responsibility for their actions.
dan
Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 9:00 AMwsDK_II,
where can i get more info on the ‘lot’ of new phones telstra are bringing out?
thanks
dan
Cameron
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 3:05 PM$49 is far too much per month for me. I wouldn’t spend $49 in calls and SMS’s anyway, let alone $450. I would easily use the 1GB of data though. Maybe if they had a $29 plan with 1GB of data. Maybe.
matt
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 3:19 PMyou could try amaysim (if your happy with the optus network)
15c/min calls, no flagfall, 12c texts, no overhead or contracts. data is 5c a mb. BUT: you can get a 1GB data pack that lasts 30 days, for $10
Andrew Weston
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 4:42 PMi signed up to the $49 cap a few months ago and there is only a small difference, $50 extra for calls and text, which is no issue to me as i never get close to my limit, the data is the real issue and that hasn’t changed.
Anon
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 6:12 PMBe aware the cost of calls is rising from 80c/min to 90c/min as well.
Bryson Cooper
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 6:32 PMIMO, the Family and Friends offer that comes around about twice a year is still better than these plans.
Giles
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 9:27 PMI agree, the F&F (‘staff cap’) plan is better than these, but it has only been offered to the general public twice *ever*… it’s a bit of a leap in logic to suggest it’ll be available twice annually.
Indy Zhang
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 8:36 PMWhich plans will include unlimited SMS? $59, $79 $99 and $129 plans right?
Craig
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 9:23 AMThat’s the way it appears Indy. I think it is for all plans from $59 and up. The $49 plan misses out on unlimited texts it seems.
Craig
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 9:43 AMCan someone confirm the following figures for me? I have converted the dollar value into a time of use value to see just how long you can talk for on these plans.
$49 = 6.75 hours
$59 = 8.25 hours
$79 = 12 hours
$99 = 18 hours
assumption of $0.90 cents/min sa reported in an earlier comment.
I really hate plans that explain your time of use in dollars as you have no idea of how long you actually can use it for.
I’m with Voda at the moment but am really thinking of bailing and moving over to Telstra but I do a fair amount of texting so I went with the Vodafone Unlimited Plan $65. Now that Telstra have unlimited texts available it makes them look better especially with their better coverage – I have a Telstra 3G work phone and it is a very rare thing to not have coverage with it)
Cheers
TeeC
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 11:21 AMI like your way of thinking Craig. All phone providers should be forced (by the ACCC most likely) to display the total number of talk time that a plan provides.
It is very difficult for the average consumer to compare plans across carriers due to different pricing schedules and “included calls” totals.
I think a petition to the ACCC for total plan talk time is in order.
Jason Wood
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 10:30 PMThe problem with that is it could only be used as a guide. There is no way a Telco could predict how much time you’d spend on overseas calls, interstate calls, calls to Telstra mobiles, calls to other mobiles, usage of special services, etc.
Michael Bird
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 9:56 AMOk, so alot you out there are whinging about about the prices charged by Telstra and say you get no real competition from them. Heres a few things many of you wouldnt know…
1. Telstra owns and maintains the majority of telecommunications infrastructure in Australia. This costs billion. Other providers dont spend this money,or, in general, invest in their own mobile phone towers or networks. Instead they piggy back off Telstras buying “space” at wholesale then offering reduced rates to Australians.
2. Telstra is forced to not be as competitive by the ACCC since Telstra owns most of the network and can, without question, deliver the best service Australia wide. If they had the best service and cheapest prices who would EVERY customer switch to? With the exception of people who have failed cred checks or are duped into taking another offer your would be crazy to go with a more expensive provider offering less service. Therefore ACCC rules they must’nt drop prices below a certain guideline or ALL OTHER PROVIDERS would be out of business within a decade.
3. You get what you pay for. Other providers, for eg. Vodafone, offer unbelieveable deals for a reason- their service is pathetic in most areas. I took up a deal of theirs that was to good to be true. I couldnt use my phone at all, even in Melbourne (i live slightly rural). I was paying for something i couldnt use. Never had that problem with Telstra.
I’d rather pay more to get an awesome service then save $10-$20 a month ($2.50-$5 weekly) with a pathetic provider.
bob
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 11:45 PMPersonally I reckon these new plans are failures, the increase in allowance is merely an advertising strategy.
1. The cost per minute has gone up to 90cents/minute instead of 40cents/30seconds (not to mention only 35cents/30seconds for 99cap). So effectively not only they did not increase any allowance, but possibly even lowered the actual allowance.
2. The current MRO bonuses are at a FLAT rate, $20 for 49 and 79, and $30 for 99 and 129, where as the new plans offer UP TO $15/$20/$25/$30
Hence if your handset MRO is supposedly only $15 per month and you go on 49cap, your monthly bill will be $5 cheaper.
Yet these freedom connect plans will offer an UP TO MRO Bonus, so back to my previous example, if your handset costs $15 per month but you could have got UP TO $20/month, well too bad you won’t get a cheaper bill cause you chose a cheaper handset.
3. Believe or not Telstra is bringing back the $2 costs per month for paper bill. Previously when they first introduced it they experienced a high number of customer complaints hence they took it off, however they are bringing this cost back.
4. The plans still do NOT include international calls/text, which has became an important demand from mobile users.
Telstra is no doubt the biggest mobile provider in Australia with the best coverage, it is because so they should be leading other companies, and not copying what they do (90cents/min call rate and $2 for paperbill). Their customer service rating is already the lowest out of ALL the providers in Australia and these new plans will certainly bring the score down to a new low.
Mike-Brisbane
Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 4:02 AMPeople need to start looking @ the alternatives instead of complaining that telco’s are ripping them off.
Telco’s always have and always will charge a premium for something people think they have no choice in, the reality is there are numerous,readily available and free alternatives to most if not all services the telco’s provide.
Messaging apps that use a tiny insignificant amount of data to send messages for free anywhere in the world and are available for 90% of todays smartphones,Mobile Facebook chat is free and Alot of people use it nowdays, Skype is completely free and you can call,video call or message anyone,anywhere for nothing, it is also available on handsets other than the Iphone now!
There really are alot of options if you just look,it’s time people started using them and taking away some of the power from the telco’s monopoly.
Complaining about something when there are Free, feasible , easily accessed alternatives is a copout.
Frosty
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 5:16 PMAnother half hearted attempt at competition from Telstra, I’m on Optus BYO $69 unlimited with 3gb data
Michelle
Monday, March 28, 2011 at 12:44 AMOk no offense to the guys who were talking about the iphone but have any of you actually worked for a phone company? If you did you would know that nobody makes any margin off the iphone and if they do its only around $16… The profit only really comes with the plan itself due to apple marking the price of the iphone… If someone breaks there screen i fail to see how that would be telstras fault or even their responsibility to fix… They dont set the guidelines for warranty, the manifacturers do
Michelle
Monday, March 28, 2011 at 12:49 AMAlso telstra are one of the last telcos to take on per minute charging.. Take a look at all the other major service providers optus an three all do the same not to mention theyve charged customers for their bills for a few years now at least..
Not everyone will be charged it of course exceptions will be made for customers who do not have internet/email address… On the surface people think telstra is the worst thing on the planet but think about it realistically… Theyre a business!
chucka
Monday, March 28, 2011 at 8:00 AMFreedom connect charge 35c flagfall plus 90c per minute to retrieve messages from messagebank. so a 5 second message left by someone will cost you $1.25 to get. All the call rates have increased from the old cap plans so I would recommend NOT swapping to these offers. Telstra Data is still over priced
cade
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 11:14 AMJust had a look at these..does Telstra think the customers are completely blind ? The $49 cap for example costs $ 700 more over 24 months due to the tacked on handset repayments..plus you get same call allowance & data ? Why would anyone go for these ” Freedom ” plans ?