Telstra seriously ups ante with no excess wireless broadband charges

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Monday, 20 October 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! Telstra has tweaked its BigPond Wireless Broadband pricing with some surprising changes including shaping and no excess charges on its 5GB and 10GB plans, seriously putting on the pressure against Vodafone, Optus and Three Mobile – all as predicted. Ok, so I didn’t think that Telstra would introduce a shaped, no excess charge plan in 2008, but my numerous predictions of a massive shakeup in the wireless broadband market during 2008 have most certainly come true, and for consumers it’s a wonderful thing. Yes, Telstra’s wireless broadband pricing is still higher than its competitors, but with double the coverage, double the connection speeds and what must be at least double the capacity of the overburdened Optus 3.5G network (if not more), Telstra might charge more in dollar terms but you get a lot more for your money, including an actually functioning network. Although pre-paid wireless broadband has finally emerged this year, most wireless broadband users find themselves connected to a two-year contract, and then watch as competition makes prices fall. Although companies like Vodafone were pioneering in bringing 5GB to market at $39.95 per month, then Optus with 6GB for the same amount, Three bringing 7GB for $49.95 and iPrimus even testing the waters with a now-unavailable 12GB for $79.95 (and no excess charges), Telstra was first to market with a 3.5G network its competitors still haven’t matched as yet. To start with, BigPond have introduced a new “entry-level” plan that no-one could ever seriously recommend to anyone, which $29.95 per month for 200MB per month on a 12 month contract. This is not the exciting game-changer of a plan. The exciting game changers are the new 5GB plan, and the improved 10GB plan, with no excess usage charges, something Telstra has never done before on its wireless packages, although the new name for these plans is familiar: BigPond Liberty. Telstra spokesperson Peter Taylor explains it, saying: “For heavy users, we've increased the 3GB plan to 5GB for the same price making it $89.95 per month on a 12 month plan. And, if customers hit 5GB, we've removed excess usage fees and instead will shape the service to 64kbps. “We've also removed the excess usage charges for our 10GB plans so our high-usage customers have greater control over how much they spend each month and once they reach their usage allowance their plan is simply shaped to 64kbps. “Existing customers can change to these new plans by visiting BigPond.com and clicking on the My BigPond section.” So, is this big news or what? You betcha it is. Won't this put pressure on Telstra's Next G network? Please read on to page 2. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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