Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 31 July 2008 12:49
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
The Aussie mobile data revolution is affecting even Telstra, perhaps
not at the much faster speeds than we’re seeing at 3 Mobile, Optus and
Vodafone, but affecting them nevertheless, boosting the $29/80MB plan
to 300MB, amongst others. But when will Telstra announce data cap
increase for its more expensive 1GB and 3GB plans?
Telstra has announced that from August 1, “more Australians will be able to use and explore more mobile internet content, video and email on the nation’s largest and fastest national mobile network – the Next G network – with the release of new and increased data download limits on the most popular data plans.”
Telstra’s Consumer Marketing and Channels Executive Director, Glenice Maclellan, said the changes would not impact reliability, customer experience or service quality, following network enhancements to increase data capacity. More from Ms Maclellan on page 3.
Given that the plans given higher data limits are the cheapest plans and don’t, as yet, include the higher plans offering 1GB or 3GB, Telstra’s price reduction could easily be seen as targeting potential iPhone 3G customers who have simply found Telstra’s existing plans too expensive – not that Telstra has given this as a reason for increasing data caps.
Update: As I was writing this story, 3 Mobile launched an iPhone
plan for those with unlocked iPhones, further fuelling the competitive
nature of the Aussie mobile data revolution we’re going through. That
story is
available here.
But first, some history: in an article last Friday (25th of July), I asked if it was time for an
Aussie mobile data revolution, given the introduction of the iPhone and plenty of smartphone/multimedia computer phones on the market.
On Tuesday the 29th of July, 3 Mobile
announced it was offering 7GB of data for use with wireless broadband modem for $49 per month and increasing data plans for phones (X-Series) from $20/500MB per month, $30/1GB and $40/2GB to double on the first two plans, $20/1GB and $30/2GB and a 50% data increase on the $40 monthly plan to 3GB.
So, back to Telstra’s announcement today (31st July), and some of the history of data mispricing practices.
Sadly, most providers still charge different rates for mobile broadband via USB/ExpressCard/PCMCIA wireless modems and broadband data accessed via a 3G or 3.5G phone. One of the questions many ask is... why?
Reasons why Telstra charges more as I see it on page 2, along with reasons why Telstra has lowered prices. You’ll find the list of new data caps from Telstra, info on lowered excess data rates and a delay on when existing customers can expect to be automatically updated to the new plans on page 3.
