Telstra makes mobile broadband more affordable

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 14 January 2010 10:49

Your IT - Home IT

Telstra has announced new BigPond wireless broadband plans available from next Monday.

Telstra's new BigPond Liberty wireless broadband plans start at $29.95 per month for 400MB of data.

400MB isn't much, but if your primary requirement is mobile email, then it might do the trick as these plans involve no excess data charges - instead throughput is capped at 64Kbps once the limit is reached.

Other plans in the series offer 1GB for $39.95, 3GB for $49.95, 6GB for $79.95 and 10GB for $129.95.

For comparison, the Liberty 12GB plan for fast ADSL costs just $69.95. Those who think wireless broadband can take the place of fixed connections must have more disposable income than most, as ADSL provides twice the data for less money.

The Liberty 10GB plan remains unchanged, but the new 6GB version is a significant improvement on the existing Liberty 5GB plan that costs $89.95 per month. Similarly, Liberty 400M and 1GB are is far better value than the old plans that cost $29.95 and $59.95 respectively and also involve excess data charges of 25c/MB.

Each of the new plans attracts a $10 per month discount when combined with a Telstra full service home phone on a 24 month plan, or $20 per month for those who also take an additional Telstra service (eg, post-paid mobile, fixed broadband, or Foxtel on a single bill; combined monthly access fee must be at least $89 to qualify for the discount).

Customers who are prepared to sign up on a 24 month wireless plan may receive a rebate that makes the BigPond Turbo USB effectively free, or that cuts the price of the BigPond Elite USB or Elite Network Gateway from $399 to $199.

Direct comparisons with other carriers' wireless broadband plans are tricky. Optus is currently offering double data for the first 12 months of a contract, so you can get 1GB for $15 per month with no mention of excess data charges.

3 also offers 1GB for $15, but that's limited to the company's 'broadband zone' which could be a problem for anyone that lives or travels outside the relevant metropolitan areas.

Which brings us to the question of coverage and speed. Next G is widely regarded as providing the widest coverage and highest speeds of the mobile networks in Australia.