Telstra slugs customers who don't take the full bundle

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 30 October 2005 13:37

Your IT - Home IT

Telstra has hiked the price of line rentals for residential customers who choose other carriers for their long distance, international calls and calls to mobiles.

It has written these customers saying that, from 1 December their line rental for this service, called "HomeLine Part" will increase from $26.95 per month to $31.95 per month.

The Consumers' Telecommunications Network (CTN) described the move as an attempt by Telstra to lure back customers who had chosen cheaper competitors for most of their services. Executive director, Teresa Corbin, said: "No doubt consumers will consider going back to Telstra for their full service because the savings they currently make will be diminished because of this price rise. Furthermore, this price rise will most impact on people in non-metropolitan areas, who can only choose other providers for long distance services - many people can still only have Telstra for their local calls services. It's another hit for rural and regional Australia...We'd like to know the real reason why Telstra are raising the price - simply claiming it is to "cover costs" is insufficient".