Telstra wake-up call as prices hiked again: 'Could pay half'

Don’t look now but over 40 per cent of mobile plans are getting a price hike of up to 9 per cent in August thanks to Telstra increasing its prices, again. Do Telstra customers realise that many of them could be paying around half what they do now for pretty much the same service?

Let me explain. My rule of thumb for whether a medium-sized mobile plan is good value is the ‘buck a gig rule’: you shouldn’t pay more than about $1 per gigabyte of data each month.

Telstra’s cheapest post-paid plan, for example, includes 50GB of data for $62, soon to cost $65 a month.

That’s $1.24 per gig, rising to $1.30 per gig in August. Not great value, if you ask me.

Particularly because, right now, you can get similar-sized plans from providers with full Telstra network access starting from 78c per gig, or from Telstra-owned brands starting from 58c per gig, or from other providers on the Telstra network starting from as little as 36c per gig.

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This rule doesn’t work for smaller plans, of course, which cost more than a buck per gig; or larger plans which cost much less than a buck per gig.

But most of us are on mid-sized plans including around 25GB-50GB a month and it works a treat for those.

I’ve been working with leading telco comparison website Whistleout.com.au to try and save Aussies some cash on their telco costs.

They provided me with the examples in the table below, which are all on the Telstra network. You can save even more by moving to other networks.

CURRENT MID-SIZED PLANS ON TELSTRA NETWORK

Something to note about the “Honeymoon deals” above, where you get bonus data for the first three or 12 months: because most plans now include “data rollover”.

That means whatever you don’t use will get banked for later, so you’ll have a buffer and shouldn’t have to worry about busting your cap in the future.

The main difference between mid-sized Telstra postpaid plans and other plans listed above is that maximum download speeds are capped at 150Mbps (Boost and Belong), or 100Mbps (Superloop, Tangerine and More).

But the average home WiFi has download speeds of 50Mbps, so all of the above options are at least twice as fast as a Standard NBN plan and more than fast enough for most of us.

Apart from Boost, which has full Telstra network access covering 99.6 per cent of the population, other providers use the Telstra wholesale network, covering 98.8 per cent of the population, with the difference mainly in the most remote and rural areas.

As for the Vodafone and Optus networks, right now you can get six-month deals offering 60GB for $20/month with TPG (that’s 33c per gig) or 100GB for $29/month with Souther Phone (that’s 29c per gig).

So don’t howl at the moon when your prices go up in August: even if you really need the Telstra network, you don’t need to pay top dollar

WhistleOut.com.au is Australia’s #1 telco comparison website. Joel Gibson is the author of EASY MONEY & KILL BILLS. Together, they’ve launched a campaign to identify money-saving opportunities for Australian mobile and internet users.