As the ongoing coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, many Australians have made the switch to an entirely digital life. Digital meetings replace physical ones and the group chat has to suffice for your Friday night catch up. For all the extra time you’ll be spending online, you’ll need data and call credit and in response, telcos have announced some crisis time offerings.
Telstra offers extra data to all and unlimited calls to pensioners due to coronavirus
Telstra announced on March 16 its planning to give customers additional data as well as unlimited calls to pensioners from March 19 until April 30.
“COVID-19 is a global challenge, we are all affected, and we all need to play our part in the response,” Telstra’s CEO Andrew Penn said in a media release.
“The data, which will be provided automatically, will help facilitate videoconferencing; voice over Wi-Fi, and cloud connectivity, all important tools when working from home or in isolation.”
It outlines it’ll offer:
- We will provide our consumer and small business broadband customers with unlimited data at no additional charge on their plan until 30 April 2019
- Post-paid customers (both handheld and mobile broadband) can receive an extra 25GB of data on their plan to use in Australia within 30 days
- Pre-paid customers with an active recharge of $40+ can get 10GB of additional data to use in Australia within 28-30 days (depending on their plan)
- Eligible pensioners with a Telstra home phone plan will also be able to make unlimited local, national and 13/1300 calls, and calls to Australian mobiles
Optus offers extra data amid coronavirus spread
Optus has said it will offer additional data to its customers during April 2020 in light of the coronavirus spread.
It hasn’t outlined the full conditions but has said more information will be released on April 20 through the My Optus app.
One of the offers includes a one-off add-on of 20GB of data during April 2020 for postpaid customers. Additionally, eligible prepaid customers that recharge with $40 or more during April will receive 10GB of extra data.
“These are unprecedented times, and we want to help Australians who find themselves having to self-isolate or work from home to stay connected,” Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said in a media release.
“We understand how much it means to customers to stay connected with their colleagues, classmates, family and friends. Access to data is critical, so we are playing our part in helping the community with our additional data offer.”
We’ll add more as other telcos, such as Vodafone, announce their offerings in the coming weeks.
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