Telstra’s new mobile plan refresh begins today. Here’s what they cost and what you get with them.
New Telstra Plans
Most of the new plans will be increasing by $5 per month. The exception is the Extra Large plan, which will see a $15 a month increase in price.
As a reminder, this is what the current plans look like, before handset repayments are added.
And this is what the new plans will look like:
The new Telstra plans will impact consumer and small business customers. The changes will come into effect from today. All of these new plans include a free 3-month subscription to Foxtel’s new streaming service, Binge.
However, if you already have Binge you will need to cancel your subscription and sign up again with Telstra. This is because the telco is a part owner of thr service — the subscription gets added to your bill as a bolt-on if you decide to keep it after the free trial.
So the changes we can expect to see on consumer plans from today are:
- Small plans: $55 a month with 40GB data (10GB data increase)
- Medium plans: $65 a month with 80GB data (20GB data increase)
- Large plans: $85 a month with 120GB data (20GB data increase)
- Extra Large plans: $115 a month with 180GB data (30GB data increase)
Telstra has confirmed it will not be grandfathering its former plans for long. This includes plans that pre-date last year’s massive plan refresh.
Instead, the telco will give current customers three months to move over to the new plans. These customers will be credited the price difference between their former and new plans over the next 12 months.
Current customers who don’t move over during this time will be moved over to the new corresponding plan on September 30.
This is a huge move that will likely leave some customers unhappy, especially if they are on much older plans or are paying off devices as well.
Without grandfathered plans, there’s nothing to stop plans going up every year you’re paying off a device. So your choices are to wear it, drop down a plan tier (unless you’re already on a Small plan) or leave, which means you would need to pay out the remainder owed on the device on the spot.
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Telstra 5G change
For the past 12 months Telstra said that Small and Medium customers would need to pay $15 a month for 5G access after June 30, 2020. That plan has now altered.
Under the new Telstra plans, Medium, Large and Extra Large plans will all get 5G included for free. But that’s not the most interesting part.
Customers on Small plans who have a 5G handset will be moved onto the new Medium plan. Group Executive of Telstra’s Consumer & Small Business, Michael Ackland, has said in a blog post that these customer will receive the aforementioned monthly rebate.
And this kinda makes sense. Under the new plan prices it would have cost $5 less a month to upgrade to a medium plan than to bolt on 5G as an extra. No one was going to do that, especially when Medium plans give customers 40GB extra data a month.
So while it isn’t great to force people onto a bigger plan, Telstra is certainly trying to make it worth their while with the rebate. Ackland also stated in the blog post that this will only impact a small number of customers.
Considering this change in tune from last year, it seems like Telstra may be starting to agree with our sentiments about 5G. That being said, you still need to pay a minimum of $65 a month on postpaid to access it. This begs the question, has the ROI now just been baked into the price increases?
Of course, it’s also worth remembering that 5G is still in the process of rolling out across the country.
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Other changes
Another interesting change is said to involves 36-month device repayments. Gizmodo Australia understands that these will no longer be actively promoted by Telstra. However, existing repayments will not be impacted by this change.
When it comes to Telstra’s financial hardships measures, the telco will be removing late fees for customers on direct debit. It will also be allowing customers to suspend their services “if their circumstances change or they simply need to reduce their spend. They are able to cancel at a later date or re-start their service at no cost. Small business owners are also able to access free call forwarding services.”