Telstra rewrites Next G mobile broadband plans for SMEs

Stephen Withers
Monday, 18 January 2010 05:58

Your IT - Home IT

Following last week's announcement of cheaper mobile broadband plans for consumers, Telstra has rolled out changes to its rates for SME customers. There are also some new laptop hardware bundles.

Telstra's improved mobile broadband pricing for consumers took effect today. The company followed that up with an announcement that it has also sharpened its pencil on business plans aimed at SMEs.

Starting this Thursday (January 21, 2010), Telstra Business will provide mobile broadband users with substantially more data for the same money (on some plans, at least) or other improvements.

Details are still sketchy, but Telstra has revealed that data allowances with be doubled on "some subscription plans" (currently ranging from 5MB/month on the $5 plan to 100GB for $600), with the $39 plan to offer seven times more data (currently 400MB/month).

There will also be a new 120GB plan, but so far there's no indication of the price.

Other changes include the addition of the Elite devices to the list of models available at $0 upfront on 24 month plans, or price reductions of up to $20 per month on 24 month plans when the 'BYO device' option is chosen.

There's no indication that Telstra is removing or reducing the excess usage charges - which can be as high as $1/MB - on its SME plans.

For customers interested in buying a laptop with built-in mobile broadband plus ongoing connectivity, Telstra will start selling three bundles based on Acer hardware on February 9.

There's the Aspire One A0531 10in netbook with a $19 data pack (the amount of data you get for that was not specified) for $28.29 per month over 24 months.

Acer 8371 13.3in and 8571 15in notebook are also for upfront payments of $149 and $249 respectively, plus monthly repayments of $62.46. You'll also need to sign up for at least $59 worth of data (6GB/month).