In a statement, Huawei Australia said the British Government had already confirmed that its 5G ban on Huawei would cost UK operators at least £2 billion ($3.59 billion) in extra costs that would be passed onto consumers and would delay 5G deployment by at least three years.
However, the company said the Turnbull Government had made no such admission about the true cost of the 5G ban on Huawei, but the Telstra price hike confirmed that Australians would now be paying more for mobile services – and getting second-class 5G technology.
It said local economics advisory firm Frontier Economics had already found that local 5G deployment costs would go rise by at least $2.1 billion because of the 5G ban which it correctly forecast, "will be recovered from consumers through higher retail prices".
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Huawei Australia said before the ban was imposed, the company had planned to contest Telstra's 5G tender and try to win business from its long-time monopoly provider Ericsson.
But Huawei's exclusion meant Ericsson was able to continue its single-supplier relationship without any competition.
Huawei Australia chief corporate affairs officer Jeremy Mitchell said: "Telstra's price hike reveals the inconvenient truth for the Federal Government – The Turnbull Government's 5G ban on Huawei will have to be paid for by ordinary Aussies.
"Without Huawei adding price competition to the market, the European duopoly vendors face no price competition and we now see consumers paying the price for that.
"Telstra's price hike means an average family of four on some Telstra mobile plans could be paying another $700 per year for their 5G services than they were before.
"Australia already has some of the highest fixed broadband prices in the world thanks to the $51 billion spent on the national broadband network – we are now heading the same way on mobile too."
