Belong Mobile Plan
Review and Comparison
- Belong use the Telstra Mobile Network
- Innovative 'Data Vault' scheme
- Add domestic or International call bundles as required
- Compare other plans to Belong below
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are Belong Mobile?
Belong Mobile are a Telstra Mobile Network reseller. They’re actually a part of the Telstra company. Their job is to sweep up the growing number of people who are leaving Telstra, Optus and Vodafone for better value plans.
Are Belong’s plans prepaid or postpaid?
Belong’s plans are postpaid SIM Only. You can compare them with our full range of SIM Only plans or prepaid plans.
If you’re not sure of the difference, read our article SIM Only vs prepaid vs month to month.
How does the voice aspect of Belong’s service work? (How do I get voice in my plan?)
Belong’s plans come with data as their core component, in recognition of the fact that an increasing number of people don’t make phone calls anymore (see our article below for more details on that.)
They have 2 phone plans (SIM Only plans) plans with differing quantities of included data.
- Medium: Also includes unlimited calls to Australian numbers and 10GB of data.
- Large: Which includes Unlimited calls to Australian numbers and 30GB of data.
Customers can add a $5 per month charge to their own account, on the Small and Medium plans, which will give them unlimited international calls to selected countries.
What’s included in Belong Mobile’s voice packs?
Belong’s voice plans include Unlimited National Calls to mobiles and landlines,including 13 numbers and 1800 numbers.
International voice call packs can be added and removed, each month, using their Self Service App, if your needs change as time goes on.
If I pay the $5 per month for International Calls with Belong Mobile – where will I be able to call for free?
The answer to this question is not easy to find out on the Belong Mobile site so we have cut and pasted the answer here:
Austria
Bangladesh
Brazil
Cambodia
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Japan
Malaysia
Mexico
New Zealand
Norway
Romania
Singapore
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
United Kingdom
USA
Vietnam
Will Belong Mobile have a Self Service App which lets me manage my service with them?
Yes, Belong have a Self Service app available for users from the launch of their service.
The app allows you to buy more data (Belong do not automatically add data when you reach your limit) and move up / down plans (from the start of the following month, 24 hours notice required.)
You can also ‘gift data’ to someone else with a Belong account.
Our own survey reveals that people who use the self service app to manage their plan are more satisfied with their phone company than those who do not. I’ve used Belong’s self service facilities for a long time and I can tell you theirs is one of the best apps out there (although it can be slow to use).
Belong use the Telstra Mobile Network. Is that the full Telstra Network? If not, what coverage will they have?
Belong use the Telstra Mobile Network yes. They use a part of the full Telstra Network. Their 4G coverage extends to about 95% of Australians. Their 3G coverage reaches 98.8% of Australians.
What data speeds can I expect from Belong Mobile?
The short answer to this is that you can expect the same data speeds you’ll get on other networks – mostly.
- 4G speeds are up to 100 Mbps (that’s faster than any NBN fixed connection!) with typical speeds being in the region of 2-50 Mbps.
- 3G speeds are up to 20 Mbps with typical speeds being 0.5 Mbps to 8 Mbps – falling to 3 Mbps in the bush.
- If you exceed your allocated data allowance, your speed will be ‘throttled’. (Throttling means they will slow the speed of your data connection to 64 kbps. That’s painfully slow to use.)
What’s not included in their voice packs?
Calls to satellite phones, premium numbers, 1234, 12455 and 12456 aren’t includedin Belong’s voice plans.
When they launched, Belong offered an International calls ‘bolt on’ – which is still available for their small and regular plans.
Do Belong offer Roaming services ?
(i.e. if I take my phone with a Belong SIM in it overseas – say to Bali or France – will I be able to make calls ?)
Belong do not currently offer any roaming facilities.
What is ‘Data Vault’ / ‘Data Bank’ ?
In my view, the best feature of Belong’s phone plans is ‘Data Bank‘.
When you’re given data, in your plan allocation, at the start of the month, it’s yours forever. Most ‘normal’ people are used to the idea that they’re given data at the start of the month on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis. Belong are different. If you are given 15GB of data on January 1, keep paying your bill and never use your phone, when you come back to it at the start of March, you will have 45GB of data available to use whenever you want. Belong just keep adding data to your ‘bank’ or ‘vault.’
What Australians want from their phone company most is fairness and, in my view, the way Belong treat data is the fairest way available. It would be nice if every telco did it.
What's good
- Belong use the Telstra Mobile Network
- Great value on 4G and 5G
- Unique (and fair) Data Vault+ Data Gifting facilities
What's bad
- Only provide postpaid plans
- Don't use the full Telstra network
- No overseas roaming facilities in their plans
Introducing Belong Mobile
60 second overview
Belong’s plans are exceptionally good value, use the Telstra Mobile Network and, importantly, include a ‘fair’ way of dealing with data.
- Belong Mobile have been around for a while in Australia as a fixed broadband provider.
- They’re owned by Telstra.
- Belong offer access to the Telstra Mobile Network.
- Their plans provide generous data allowances.
- For example, Belong’s plans start at $25 per month. Telstra’s lowest price point for a SIM Only plan is $49.
- (Although Telstra do offer more data on that plan since it’s more expensive.)
- Telstra’s own post paid SIM range is now only available when you sign a 12 month contract with them.
- Belong also offer innovative plan structures including something new to Australia:
- Continuous Data Rollover – called Data Vault or Data bank.
- This continuous data rollover is, in my view, the fairest treatment of data you’ll find.
- We explain more about ‘data vault’ / ‘data bank’ below.
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This Month’s Hot Offers
Review: Belong Mobile
Belong’s plans are exceptionally good value, use the Telstra Mobile Network, include a ‘fair’ way of dealing with data and recognize that the way we’re using our phones has changed. Their data inclusions are some of the best available at the price point.
Reviewing Belong Mobile’s plans show that they have data allocations to cover a broad range of needs.
People’s data usage varies enormously. The type of phone you have, how new it is, whether it’s 4G or not, whether it’s an iPhone and how big the screen all influence the data requirements people have as much as their personal preferences do.
Belong have five plans to pick from.
Belong’s plans cover everyone on the chart offering the right amount of data with a very small plan range.
- Belong have a a range of plans with differing data and voice inclusions.
Between them, these plans cover every data need . - Their price plans are built around data inclusions – because that’s what people want more:
Belong know you want to you pick your data allowance before anything else. - These plans are among the best data allowances at these price points
Belong offer access to the Telstra Mobile Network at a lower monthly fee than any other provider - Then add voice and IDD (International Direct Dialing.)
Users can also add Domestic (Australian) calls and International Calls for an additional $5 each, to most plans.
See below for a comparison between Belong and other’s mobile plans.
Belong Mobile offer Data Banking / Data Vault
- What is the ‘Data Vault / Bank’ in Belong’s plans?:
Data Rollover is a term which has been around for some time. Belong do data rollover the way your data allocation SHOULD work. The approach they’ve taken is currently unique to Belong Mobile (and Telstra, Belong’s parent company) in Australia – although we hope other phone companies, having seen this plan features, will offer the same thing. With Data Bank from Belong, when you buy your data, it’s your data forever. If you don’t use it in a month, you keep rolling it over forever until you want to use it. Imagine that Belong paid you your data in to your phone plan as if it was wages in to a bank. If you don’t use your data / wages, it just sits in the bank as savings until you want to use it. Data Rollover from Belong is essentially an eternal Data Rollover facility. - Data Vault / Bank is good for you and them:
There will be times in the next few months, for those who take these plans, when people will use less data than they expected to. Their ‘balance’ of data in the balance will grow. It’s not hard to imagine people having 50GB or 100GB of data in their data rollover balance after a few months with the company. That makes it extremely cheap to operate your phone. Remember, once you join, it might be hard to leave. – because you’d be throwing all the data in your bank away.
Struggling to figure out what you need data wise ? Read our article : How can I work out how much data I need in a plan?
Other good things about Belong Mobile
- Extra data is cheap : You get to choose if you want to add it!
Belong charge $10 for 2GB of extra data if you reach your plan inclusion threshold. $10 per GB is the industry norm and, as our recent survey showed around 30% of people have sustained this sort of charge for extra data in the last month. Belong’s charges here are obviously good value. Tied with the ‘data rollover’ facility they have, this ‘auto-add data’ scheme solves some of the problems inherent with the scheme offered by others. The major problem these alternative systems present is the automatic addition of data towards the end of the month. An extra GB provided on the last day may be hardly used and is then lost when the plan resets at the end of the month. Obviously, with a data rollover in place, that’s not the case. If you don’t use the data on the last day of the month, you can just use it when you need it in the future. And remember, with Belong, you have to consciously decide to add extra data before it is put on to your bill and plan. With the others, it’s just automatically added on. - They have a Self Service management app:
Self Service apps are now a fundamental part of working with phone companies. Using them makes self service activities (especially data management) easier. Belong managed to have one of these for the launch of their service – something most companies fail to do. The app is pretty accomplished, too. You can add voice and SMS packs (or remove them) from the app each day. - Their service includes voice to text message service:
Belong offer a free voice to SMS service. If you get a voicemail of 10 seconds or less, they will try and turn that in to an SMS for you. - When you reach your data threshold, the speed will fall to 64kbps:
When you run out of data, the speed of data you get to your phone will fall to 64kpbs. This is called ‘throttling’. That is going to be frustratingly low. It’s worth bearing in mind that this is how the data service will work. If you don’t know this, you might well think there is a network problem and call their support team. The solution, if this does happen, is simple. Just go in to the app and buy another 2GB for $10. - You can ‘gift’ your data:
With Belong, you can ‘gift’ data. You can only do this to other Belong Mobile users of course, the person you want to pass the extra data to has to have a Belong plan, to enable your transfer. However, you can move data, from your account to theirs, with no charge, whenever you want to. This is another facility offered from the self service app and another great thing about Belong’s data management. - Their checkout is fantastic:
You’ll be in and out in 2 minutes – no kidding.
Not so good things about Belong Mobile
- You won’t get the full Telstra network:
People often skim the inclusions in these plans. Their eyes light up when they see they’re getting cheaper access to the Telstra network. In reality, when it’s resold (as Belong are doing) you don’t get the full Telstra Network. Belong’s access extends to 98.8% of the Australian population with 4G data speeds. They cover around 95% of the population with 4G data speeds. - Speed limiting. Belong cap the maximum download speed at 150Mbps on the majority of their plans. This is probably not a deal breaker for the price point.
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This Month’s Hot Offers
Sources:
- Some chart information from Deloitte
- And commentary on Telstra’s woes from The Australian
