[AU] I'm considering leaving Telstra... (Mobile plans discussion) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 08:10:57 am
content: For the first time ever (since getting my first mobile phone in 1997), I'm considering switching from Telstra to another Australian 4G carrier (either Vodafone or Optus).Currently, I'm on one of Telstra's older plans ($95/mth for unlimited calls/SMS but only 7GB data). I realise there are newer plans out there and it would still be cheaper to break contract (due to expire in a few months) and sign up to one of Telstra's new month-to-month plans as the savings outstrip the penalties.But I've also been looking abroad and Vodafone have some very attractive offers (e.g.: $50/mth for 18GB data and unlimited national calls and SMS) as does Optus ($40/mth for 12GB data and unlimited national calls and SMS).I spend 99% of my time in metropolitan city centres around Australia (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne are the most common destinations). I know Telstra has by far the best regional coverage, but the only place I've really used that was on holiday (where I could just do without my phone) or down the western coast of Tasmania where Telstra managed to hold onto intermittent signal where all the other carriers were dead for hours at a time, but that was years ago.Indoor coverage is important to me and currently I have a handset which takes advantage of Telstra's 700MHz 4GS service.Having never used anyone but Telstra before, I'd love to hear from those who have.

author: Muttley Snickers
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 08:38:27 am
content: To each his own I guess, generally speaking everyone uses a phone in a different manner so what suits me may not suit you or your requirements, I've been with Optus since they started down here and for me it's better the devil I know but if I had to switch then it would be to Telechoice based on the recommendation from some trusted friends who seem to be in the know.Vodafone staff in the past have told us fibs so I have no time for them at all, some other mates are still with Telstra for no other reason than their coverage of particular regions otherwise they would drop them in a heartbeat, personally I despise Telstra for other reasons.Edit; spell check.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 08:45:29 am
content: Quote from: Muttley Snickers on June 26, 2017, 08:38:27 amInteresting. I've never considered them before. Quite reasonable plans and they claim on their website that TeleChoice"uses part of Telstra's 4G and 3G mobile network". That makes me wonder... which "parts" would they be and what "parts" aren't they using?Quote from: Muttley Snickers on June 26, 2017, 08:38:27 amIt's much the same reason for me, but I have to say the dramas I've had with Telstra and few and far between and that includes their NBN internet service. They've been quite good to me in terms of offering remediation and credit in the past (even without asking).I guess it comes down to the age-old saying: You get what you pay for.

author: johnh
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 09:23:13 am
content: In other words they are a wholesaler. They don't own any infrastructure .

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 09:34:13 am
content: Quote from: johnh on June 26, 2017, 09:23:13 amI realise that. Almost anyone can operate a MVNO these days. It's just that they don't tend to roam across multiple carriers, they usually purchase wholesale "air time" from one carrier alone. My query is: Why would they specifically use the terminology "partof Telstra's mobile network". They are obviously an MVNO buying capacity from Telstra Wholesale, it's what theyaren'tdisclosing that makes me suspicious.Does "part" mean only limited to some of the frequencies Telstra use?Does it mean only in certain geographical areas?Does it mean TeleChoice only have a limited bandwidth on the 4G network?It can be taken in several different ways.

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 02:57:26 am
content: I am with virgin mobile, but not amazingly happy with their service... I also have a dying phone. I'm currently tossing up the opposite of you -need to decide between buying a new phone and staying with virgin, or jumping to telstra on a plan...For the same phone (google pixel) buying it outright and staying with virgin is significantly cheaper than getting it on a 2 year plan with Telstra, but to be honest I do find that I don't get as much coverage as I'd like (virgin is optus network) and I do wonder how much better it would be with Telstra... A shame the only way to find out seems to be jumping on a 2 year plan.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 05:49:05 am
content: Quote from: julianhigginson on June 28, 2017, 02:57:26 amYou're almost always better off buying a mobile handset outright and then choosing a SIM-only plan. Even if your phone is "$0 a month" you're still paying for the handset via an MRO (Mobile Repayment Option) bundled into that plan and after your contract term is up, it ends up much more expensive than it would have been if you just bought the phone outright. If you cancel your contract part way through, you have to pay off the remainder of your handset (and sometimes a cancellation fee on top of that).You have a few options with Telstra if you're using your own handset; Casual month-to-month SIM only plans or a 12-month SIM only plan, both cost the same, but the 12-month option has more plans to choose from. This is the way I'll be going from now on; Buy a handset outright (and claim it as a tax deduction) and just go month-by-month. That way, you're not locked in to a 12 or 24 month contract when newer (better value plans) come out.

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 08:44:44 am
content: I would try out the competition's SIMs cheapo plans first, on an unlocked 'confirmed working' phone, before jumping the Telstra shipIf receiving mobile phone calls is paramount to your income, then Telstra still have the upper hand imoAll their other services are, well.. it pays to shop around

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 09:13:25 am
content: Quote from: Electro Detective on June 28, 2017, 08:44:44 amI think you pretty much answered my question; I could be re-called to anywhere in the country for work, which could sometimes mean regional and remote areas. Yes, I have other means of comms without relying on my own personal mobile, but due to the nature of my work, those other options can't always be utilised.I do have to say, Telstra has almost never let me down in the past 20 years, sure, their customer service could use some work and when there are problems (particularly with billing) it usually takes a phone call or two to get it sorted, but we're talking about such a small amount of time and effort in the long run.

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 10:28:22 am
content: hmm.. I hadn't seen the month to month plans... I was a bit put out by the lock in 12 month for BYO sim plans when I looked the other day... With virgin if I have my own phone I can jump to and from any plan at any time. they just break the current month pro-rata and start again.Right now I pay $30 a month postpaid, and I get all the data and phonecalls I need (including the occasional international)The telstra 1 year $40 plan looks mostly OK, but at 33% more money per month, locked in for a year, and has no overseas calls included! And if I want the flexibility of being able to change my deal in future if they offer something better, then the cheapest monthly plan is $50/month! and that also includes no OS calls.Then the OS call deals themselves are a bit of a strange one with Telstra, because it seems even for bundled OS calls they're only bundled for 10 countries! what if I need to call somewhere else? It's a bit of a blank cheque, and feels, well, a bit scummy and untrustworthy. Which is a shame because even with the price difference, I am tempted by the better phone network. I just don't want to have to stress about what an occasional overseas phonecall is costing me......Then I looked at telstra resellers and that's another whole pile of nickel and diming garbage. most are just 28 day plans you have to recharge manually.... then there's "monthly" plans that also get charged every 28 days? boo. only 1 month that short a year.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 11:54:15 pm
content: Telstra casual plans are here:https://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/plans-and-ratesJust click on the "Casual SIM Only Plan" option.Of course they are buried under several links because they like to promote their 12/24 month plans with a phone up-front and centre.Quote from: julianhigginson on June 28, 2017, 10:28:22 amYep, at that's done on purpose, so they can essentially charge you an extra months usage within a 12-month period. It's sneaky.If you add it up, it's not uncommon to have pre-paid plans ending up more expensive than post-paid plans.The Checkout did a short segment on mobile plans (although it's largely just common sense).

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2017, 01:07:25 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on June 29, 2017, 12:31:36 amI agree!I'm generally pretty pragmatic, and up till now I do have "good enough" I started with a phone on a plan and was OK with that, but once it expired, I went post pay sim only, and I've had that for as long as I've had a mobile phone.But I do get tempted by the idea of having a network that is more reliable and reaches more physical places. As it is my current coverage drops out at a couple of places I go to regularly. It's OK... I can live with that but as I am a contractor and my phone is my main contact point when not at my computer, it would be better if that wasn't the case.And since I need to get a new phone anyway - I'm looking at all my options properly for the first time in about 10 years.An extra $120-$240 a year for my phone plan isn't really an issue for me, but on the other hand, there's always something else I can do with $240, and if I'm locking into something 33%-66% more expensive than what I have already, it'd better be *better*The country limit for overseas calls thing in the telstra plan is becoming my sticking point because in what would otherwise be a premium phone plan, it just seems really cheap and crappy and designed to wallop people with huge bills. I was interested to see if the resellers were the same, seems they mostly are, but then they also do other crap like 28 day bill cycles. It's all just scummy and annoying. no thanks.The funny thing is, the last few years most of my overseas work calls have been skype or gotomeeting, anyway. Then historically I only really phone out to China, HK, UK, US, NZ. Which are all in the 10 included countries. But when I have different work from different people in different countries and I don't know where I might be needing to call in the future, the idea of being locked into a plan where they can bend my wallet over a table and have their way with it if I ever need usage outside some arbitrarily set limit, it just doesn't seem like a smart move.

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 29, 2017, 06:29:58 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on June 26, 2017, 08:10:57 amHave a look at Boost prepaid. It's full Telstra LTE, but a lot cheaper.http://boost.com.au/plans/

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2017, 06:52:34 am
content: Yeah I saw them the other night..... $40 plan looks good, though I read some guff online about Boost only having access to some version of 4G while full telstra plan has some other version of 4G too? Also, 28 day plans.it's all so bloody annoying and deliberately opaque.So anyway, I've decided that no matter what, I'm not interested in locking into a 2 year bundle plan again, so I bought the phone and will be going to pick it up tonight. I guess I'll be with virgin for a while longer. At least until network blackspots finally force me into properly researching and picking some kind of telstra network offering...

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 29, 2017, 07:30:45 am
content: Quote from: julianhigginson on June 29, 2017, 06:52:34 amBoost has access to all Telstra, not a subset.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 29, 2017, 07:43:34 am
content: Quote from: tronixstuff on June 29, 2017, 07:30:45 amCan you provide a source? I find it hard to believe that an MVNO has absolute full access to all of a carriers infrastructure (and spectrum) without limitations.4G is all well and good for most, but Telstra have been promoting "4GX" (essentially LTE-A or 4.5G) for years now and even that is old news with 5G just around the corner.

author: johnh
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2017, 08:54:08 am
content: They don't have full access.Telstra can restrict/limit the cells they can use, mainly on the fringe. So they don't get the same coverage.Possibly restrict the bandwidth.And they don't wholesale VoLTE.5G Then you have to get new handset to make use of the new frequencies.