When you sign up with Telstra there is a variety of options and add-ons, depending on what sort of communication you need and how much you are prepared to pay.
On its website Telstra clearly labels the different options with letters for identification purposes.
12 Month Plans
The S plan
With this plan you can use your own phone. It costs $35 and for that you get 500MB of data and $300 worth of calls so at the standard rate of $2 for a 2 minute call you get a lot of talk time at 150 minutes a month. This will cost you $420 a year.
There are some additional add-ons that don’t incur any extra fees and this includes:
- Music streaming, which is data free, plus a 6 month membership to Apple Music. However, there are extra charges for video streaming and non-music content.
- If you don’t think that you have enough international access and you have friends and family overseas who you would love to chat with until the cows come home. For a small extra cost of $10 you can add an International Call Pack which offers unlimited texts and international calls from Australia 10 selected which include India, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.
- Telstra Air® data which is Telstra’s brain child and is both unlimited and free. This is available to access at their 650,000 Telstra Air hotspots throughout the country and over 19 million Fon Wi-Fi spots abroad. This offer has been extended until 27th March 2017.
- If you are still after more add-ons you are eligible for a 200GB storage subscription so that you can safely store, share and access your vital files and documents in cloud at no cost.
The MX Plan
This costs $40 for one month over a 12 month period and for it you get 5 GB every month. The minimum cost you are expected to pay is $480.This is available for new customers and anyone who wants to change their current contract. All account transactions have to take place online so there is no visiting your local Telstra shop front with this plan. Included apart from data is $1,000 worth of talk time which works out at a whopping 500 minutes every month.
Added to this are additions which other plan holders get too. One of these is music streaming, which comes free of data and a six month membership with Apple Music. Telstra Air® data is available 24/7 at the 650,000 Telstra Air hotspots scattered throughout the country and at more than 19 million Fon Wi-Fi spots overseas. This offer is still available until 27th March 2017. The 200GB storage subscription is available as well, so you can organise and share your cluttered desktop from the cloud Microsoft OneDrive at no cost.
The M plan
The M plan is another 12 month option and costs $50 a month. For this you get what is called double data which is 10GB. The minimum outlay for this is $600 spread over the 12 months. The talk time allowed is valued at $1,000, which is the same as the MX plan. The free add-ons are the same as the ones for S and MX.
The L Plan
The L plan is bigger on data at 10GB with an add-on of 5GB if you sign up to the plan before 22nd January. It is big on price too at $70 a month. It attracts a minimum annual payment of $840. It’s definitely worth taking advantage of the add-ons like the free international calls and texts to selected countries, free music streaming and the 200GB of cloud storage.
One add-on to the L Plan that is not offered on other monthly plans is a 6 month subscription to Netflix along with rentals of 3 new releases from BigPond Movies. This offer expires at 11:59pm on February 13th 2017.
Casual SIM only plans
This is for those of you who don’t want to commit yourself to 12 or 24 months but just pay on a monthly basis. They follow a similar pattern to the longer term plans. You can bring your own phone but check to see if it’s compatible with the frequencies used by Telstra for 3G and 4G access.
The S Plan
This is $35 and includes 500MB of data and $300 worth of talk time worth 150 minutes a month. Free texts, MMS and message bank come as a standard inclusion. There is also access to other freebies, such as data free music streaming, Telstra Air access and Microsoft One Drive 200GB of cloud storage, share and access. Don’t forget to download the Telstra Air App as it is a far quicker way of using the Telstra Air Wi-Fi hotspots dotted around the country. If you need extra data this is available at $10 per GB.
The M Plan
This is $50 a month with a minimum payment of $50 for 5GB and a $1000 worth of talk time. This includes unlimited SMS and MMS and retrieval of messages through MessageBank. The data and any unused call time expire when you come to the end of the month. It doesn’t carry over to the next month.
The L Plan
This is the $70 monthly deal that offers 10GB of data, unlimited phone calls within Australia, and of course unlimited SMS, MMS and MessageBank retrieval. If you need extra data you can get 2GB more for only $15 or pay $35 for 5GB. This has an additional bonus that the other monthly plans don’t offer and that is unlimited talk time and texting to selected countries abroad including the UK, USA, Canada, China, India, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.
These monthly deals include all those extras too such as Telstra Air, free music streaming and a subscription to Microsoft One Drive cloud storage solution.
Home entertainment is not forgotten by Telstra
- If being mobile is not your thing you can stay at home and enjoy home internet, Foxtel from Telstra, Telstra TV and BigPond movies. There are a variety of sports viewing opportunities provided by Telstra which include an AFL Live Pass, a NBL Live Pass, Netball Live and a NRL Digital Pass.
Summary
These are just some of the key services offered by Telstra and there are many other choices available to new and existing subscribers.