Telstra is increasing the prices of several mobile and internet plans, the same week that the telco has come under fire from competitor Vodafone for “misleading” coverage maps.
Until May 2025, Telstra had failed to mention that its coverage maps, claimed to cover 99.7 per cent of the population, were also based on the coverage of external antennas and boosters, many of which are purchased by customers living in remote locations.
Telstra’s biggest competitors don’t base coverage expectations on access to such tech, and Vodafone has now referred Telstra to the ACCC. The Telstra website has been updated to reflect the use of antennas and boosters where relevant.
Later in the week, the orange telco announced that some plans are going up by as much as AU$7 in some cases, while some of the most expensive NBN plans are actually having their prices decreased. Telstra mobile broadband plans are all getting price hikes, with the Medium plan getting a data allowance increase.
The price increases can be found below and will be live from July 1. Premium and Starter mobile plans aren’t changing, along with the Starter (12Mbps) NBN plan.
Postpaid plans:
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Current Price |
Price as of July 1 |
|---|---|---|
|
Mobile bundle (25GB) |
AU$52 |
AU$57 |
|
Basic plan (50GB) |
AU$65 |
AU$70 |
|
Essential plan (180GB) |
AU$75 |
AU$80 |
Mobile broadband plans:
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Current Price |
Price as of July 1 |
|---|---|---|
|
Data bundle (10GB) |
AU$10 |
AU$15 |
|
Small plan (30GB) |
AU$25 |
AU$30 |
|
Medium plan (100GB, up from 75GB) |
AU$58 |
AU$65 |
NBN plans:
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Current Price |
Price as of July 1 |
|---|---|---|
|
Basic (25Mbps) |
AU$89 |
AU$93 |
|
Essential (50Mbps) |
AU$105 |
AU$109 |
|
Premium (100Mbps) |
AU$110 |
AU$113 |
|
Ultimate (250Mbps) |
AU$130 |
AU$129 |
|
Ultrafast (1,000Mbps) |
AU$150 |
AU$139 |
Is it time to consider a Telstra alternative?
Australia’s largest telco continues to control a larger coverage footprint than Optus and Vodafone even without boosters and antennas – and even if they didn’t, you’d likely only notice major coverage deadzones outside of major cities and towns.
It’s obviously troubling that Telstra has calculated its coverage footprint using technology not factored in by its major competitors, but as the telco points out, there is no industry standard for calculating coverage – so perhaps there’s a good case for establishing enforced coverage mapping practices here.
For the average consumer, the price increases are more alarming, as they’ll affect users across the entire country. Though none of these price increases are too dramatic and the highest is only a AU$7 rise, Telstra still charges far more for its plans than any of its competitors.
Time to ditch Telstra?
I can confidently say that there are Telstra alternatives that you should consider, and I’d recommend checking out the best phone plans and the best NBN plans if you’re looking to save some money.
All of this said, these price increases aren’t too surprising. Price changes every year or so are common among Australian telcos, and we’ve been anticipating price adjustment across NBN plans for some time now with wholesale costs set to increase from July.
But at this point, Telstra’s plans are far out of step with almost all of the company’s competitors. Spending AU$93 on an NBN 25 plan seems ludicrous when you can get the same speed tier for only AU$39p/m from Flip with its introductory price. And AU$113 for NBN 100? That’s a jaw-dropping cost, especially when Spintel will only set you back AU$65p/m (AU$81.95 after six months) for the same speed tier.
The same can easily be said for mobile phone plans. Even though Telstra tends to offer huge data allowances with its postpaid options, you’ll still save a lot more with most other telcos – including those that use the Telstra network – especially if you’re willing to go without a big data inclusion.
Telstra’s competitive edge has always been the company’s included perks and features, including the Telstra Smart Modem with 4G backup for NBN customers and unlimited (speed-capped) data on phone plans. These inclusions might not mean much to you however, especially in the face of a great saving.
We’ve included a snapshot of the most popular NBN plans in the table below, and further down you’ll find the most popular phone plan alternatives.
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zac.kelly@futurenet.com (Zachariah Kelly)
