What is a Telstra companion plan?

Telstra companion plan

Winning strategy

With the mobile industry becoming more competitive, even the Australian telco giants need to dapt in order to attract and retain customers. Telstra has had a major shakeup recently, and the restructure has led to the introduction of innovative ‘Telstra companion plans.’ The telco aims to create mobile packages which will grow according to the needs of the customer, and help them manage them conveniently using a single account.

Companion Plan – What does it mean?

To achieve their T22 strategy, the company is capitalising on the increasing number of customers who are managing multiple SIMs and buying a different mobile plan for each SIM. The launch of the companion plan will put an end to the need to coordinate multiple plans. Customers can share their data with other eligible services on the same account. Through this plan, a customer can get a cheaper second SIM (on the companion plan), and the data can be shared with this new SIM.

The companion plan is aimed at easier data sharing across different SIMs of a single account.

What’s new about the companion plan? Source

Benefits of the plan

The companion SIM shares the data with the parent plan and allows unlimited calls, MMS and texts to any Australian number. If a customer buys a device or handset with the companion plan, they are eligible for 12-24 interest-free monthly payments for the handset using the Device Payment contract.  Also, if the start date of the device and companion plan is the same, a consumer receives extra-credit towards the plan. But, when a consumer cancels the plan or the device payment contract, they are no longer eligible for the extra credit, and they will have to pay the balance amount for the handset.

Under the plan, data can be shared across all plans listed on a single Telstra account.

Considering Companionship

Using the companion plan, a customer can share their monthly data allowance with eligible data share services on the same account. The data share services include Go Mobile Plus BYO, Go, Mobile Plus, Go Mobile Swap plans, Go Mobile Plus Casual plans, Go Mobile plans, Go Mobile BYO, Go Mobile Swap, Go Mobile Casual plans, Telstra Premium Mobile plus, and other Data Share SIM Plans.

Share data with the companion plan

Share data with the companion plan Source

Saving money

Telstra companion plans start at $35 per month, which includes 1GB of data. The plan features unlimited calls, SMS, MMS and texts to any Australian number. Also, if a customer ends up using more than their monthly data usage, they are charged a flat rate of $10 per 10GB of data.

The companion plan allows a customer to share their monthly mobile data, calls, texts, and MMS with a second SIM on the same account.

101 About Telstra’s Companion Plan Source

Possible pitfalls

Though the plan seems tempting because customers can share their unused data with family members, they need to keep an eye on things which are not included in the plan. The monthly call allowance of the plan cannot be used outside Australia, and it doesn’t include calls, MMS and texts to international numbers, satellite numbers and premium numbers.

Future of Telstra

As a part of their T22 strategy, the telecommunication company is likely to invest close to $5 billion in upgrading their core network over the next few years. The coming years will see cheaper mobile data services and will pave the way for the effective rollout of 5G.

With the launch of the companion plan, the company has made it very clear that in the coming years their strategy is to allow customers to choose core connectivity services and will enable them to add and modify services to fit their individual needs. Through these plans, Telstra is attempting to limit plan complexity and continue as a leader in the global telecommunication community.