Planning to head abroad this Christmas? Better leave the mobile phone behind if you’re on Australia’s biggest telco — Telstra is canning its existing International Casual Traveller Data Packs, and is moving to pricier Travel Passes.
Fairfax Media reports that Telstra’s rates for a broad range of travellers has gone in the wrong direction, despite strong competition and downward price pressure from both Optus and Vodafone, as well as smaller specialty roaming operators like Globalgig.
The 30 day travel pack for Europe and the US, for example, has been increased in price from $300 to $450; a 7-day pass for Indonesia and Thailand changes from $35 to $70 with 525MB of data versus 350MB on the previous pack. Excess data over these limits, previously charged at 3c per MB, is now charged at 10c per MB — a threefold hike.
Customers on Telstra’s CrowdSupport community website, where the changes were announced, are understandably annoyed. Each pack includes more data, but the extra increase in price outweighs the addition and drives the overall cost per gigabyte upwards. [SMH]
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