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$199 P/M for Unlimited Mobile Data/Calls/SMS/MMS from Australia to O/S Numbers (No Capped Speed) @ Telstra

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Telstra has today unveiled its new $199 “Ultimate” mobile plan – Australia’s most expensive uncapped ‘unlimited’ mobile data deal.

The latest initiative forms part of the “Telstra 2022” strategy, which seeks to streamline mobile offers within the next three years.

Contrary to rival ‘unlimited’ data offers, the $199 Ultimate plan does not feature a speed cap, however, is “not shareable”, restricted to “personal [smartphone] use” and is governed by a “FairPlay” policy.

Set to be Telstra’s most expensive consumer plan, the deal will cost consumers $4,776 across 24 months.

The new Ultimate plan will reportedly target top-end customers – those who value unrestricted, consistently high Telstra 4GX data speeds.

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  • +16

    Critical Information Summary available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/personal/mobile-…

    All I can say about the new range range of plans that dropped last night is RIP Data Pools. "You can’t share the data between other plans on the same account." - Mentioned on all plan Critical Information Summaries.

    • thank you…

    • its also mentioned in the OP

    • How do they stop a hotspot?

      • +5

        They don't.

      • It's not hard to figure out when you use it for more than one device simultaneously

        • +8

          It doesnt make a difference.

          The hotspot is the device that Telstra sees as active, not all the devices connected to the hotspot.

      • +6

        because hotspot can only be in one physical location at once whereas data pool covers the members wherever they are

      • The imei number of the device when it registers to the network. They can tell what device it is from that.

      • I have just asked Telstra about this, and they told me that wifi hotspot is allowed.
        So you just can not share your data in between you account and someone else's account (data gift).

    • +1

      According to the CIS, satellite calls are not included, for anyone who was wondering.

  • +4
  • +4

    wow

  • +4

    You also get the Iphone x 256gb for free if you sign up for 24 months. Plus $10 discount per month if your port in or get $200 jb hifi card.

    • +15

      “Free”. Its worked into the cost. It’s not free.

      • +2

        That's free in telco speak.

    • +3

      $4776 for 24 months. Wow.

    • +7

      Still not sure that it works out. If the idea that it substitutes for, say, $60/month NBN, $40/month mobile service, and a $1,000 device, over 24 months you are still $1,376 in the red.

      • you can get a house full of Kogan sim cards for the same cost!

    • Where is that mentioned?.

  • +58

    What is the bargain here?

    • OP is not very clear but if you take up the plan on 24month contract you get an iPhone X 256GB included and if you port in a number you have $10 off a month so it's $189/month for unlimited everything on an iPhone X 256GB

    • Massive saving on excess data compared to their current plans??…

  • +13

    Cheaper than NBN? And faster? Sooner ?

    • +20

      Well to be fair it would be faster than FTTN that's for sure.

      • +7

        Fair shake of the sauce bottle

      • +9

        Well yeah, until it's your whole neighborhood on it from 6pm till 11pm all trying to stream 4k netflix at the same time… that's where the "current" wireless technology falls apart.

        To be fair the nbn on the cheapo providers had a similar issue, but that wasn't a hardware problem, just the reseller being too cheap to buy enough bandwidth to service all their customers.

      • You have to hand it to them, Telstra 4GX is seriously fast.

        • @Porthos: Fair enough it's unpredictable, but I get about 40 mbps on Telstra and someone below is reporting 186 mbps. Pings are also not bad (say 50-60ms). Compared to FTTN it's a viable option for some.

        • @josho9: Exactly the point though. If you’re the only person on a tower, your speeds will be amazing. But who is ever the only person on a tower?

          Cellular will always have a place, but sick of seeing people who claim it has such amazing speeds without realising it simply does due to the pathetically low download limits (so it’s not like everyone is on it every night streaming Netflix as you’d go through your quota within a few hours). If fixed line had the same sort of download limits you’d get amazing speeds 24x7 as well.

          I don’t see how this plan is a viable option for anyone, seriously $199 a month for something you have to hotspot to for any other device in your house to get access to it?

          Make it comparable to current fixed line costs and you may have a point there. But that can never happen as it would grind the entire network to a halt (and as I showed, even right now it’s barely any better than my current ADSL2, will be much worse when I get NBN in a few months).

        • +1

          @Porthos:

          There's a lot of factors that determine mobile speed though.

          Congestion is only one of them.
          Signal strength, the band that you're on, kind of site to the tower, what your house is made of.

          All affect mobile signal and thus speed.

          If my mobile broadband is stuck on band 28, I get shitty speeds, sometimes under 5Mbps. But getting it to connect to band 3 I get about 40-60.

          Why does it drop? Signal strength, my antenna and the house blocking line of site for band 3.

          If i put an antenna on the roof is be far better.

          Backhaul congestion is an issue, but not necessarily the reason you currently get crappy mobile speeds, without checking all the above.

    • +10

      don't forget portable and works in a power outage too. Its WAY better than the NBN!!

      • +6

        Dont know why you're downvoted. Your comment is accurate.

        I have about 100 sites who "had to" go to nbn.

        We now have 4gx fair play services there; 100x better.

        • Dont know why you're downvoted. Your comment is accurate.

          Thanks! Yeah people are funny. I never said anything about price, just stating some facts! But each to their own.

      • +3

        It won't be of much use to anyone else (or any web connected devices) in the household if you've got it in your phone to tether but you're not home. If you plan to use it in a SIM compatible router, it could be good, but you'd be foregoing the phone plan and paying a huge premium above a standard NBN unlimited plan (almost double). So really, it's only better than the NBN if your speeds are absolute rubbish and/or you desperately need speeds in excess of 50-100Mbps. Or need a connection that can roam. And even then, there's no guarantee that Telstra 4GX will beat those speeds on a consistent basis (it probably will, but it's not a certainty in peak times or certain locations).

        • No NBN here paying Optus $123 for iPad 100G + $54 140G sim in router (data share)= home internet. This is better if I could have a second sim for home router. Anyway

      • Wot! How dare you question Kevin 07 technology.

        • +5

          FTTN (fibre to the node) is Malcolm Turnbull technology

      • +1

        I think Telstra had more outages in the last year than power outages!!

      • If you live outside the city and a power outage puts 10,000 homes full of devices from wifi to 4g, the mobile network is on its knees in seconds.

    • -1

      Cheaper than NBN?

      Unmetered - not "unlimited" - 100/40 Telstra service is $129.

      • +3

        Just did a speed test

        Telecube NBN 100/40 D:58 U:39
        Telstra 4G D:279 U:44.2

        later on today the 4G will probably exceed D:300

        • +1

          Telstra delivers on speed unlike Telecube though …

        • what units? millibits per century?

        • @abb: Mbps sorry I should have added that.

        • That is really interesting. In my area of Brisbane the best I have been able to get on Telstra 4GX is 186 Mbps.

        • @entropysbane: yeah we had our local towers upgraded about 3mths ago. My record was 345 down, I'm guessing in the burbs most people are working, so I've pretty much got the backhaul to myself. I was on the Gold Coast a month ago and I couldn't even get 90…..not that it mattered, I had hotspot on 3 devices on youtube, another on CH9 catchup and my toy streaming footy and no complaints.

        • Yeah sick, Telstra 4G in Perth at 7pm -

          20ms ping, 8.72Mbps down, 6.96Mbps up. Totally worth $199 a month! 👍🏻

    • +1

      How’s it cheaper?

      • It isn’t, yet. It’s telstra.
        As other providers seek to compete it will drop in price though, so not so keen to sign up for 24 months as I expect price to fall fairly quickly.
        .
        That said, this is mobile. That is worth a bit extra.

  • +4

    awesome, can finally run my roaming data centre business hot spotting off my smart phone

    • +1

      Only personal use

  • +1

    Interested but not going to be the guinea pig in case they cap/terminate you at ~100gb.

    • If they terminate you it's not a big deal? You can probably replace the component parts in less than $200/month.

  • +2

    It’s finally here. Will be interesting to see what Optus and Ovo has to offer.

    • +1

      Optus sent me a text saying my unlimited $2 days 3G plan is being discontinued and I will be changed to the new $3 days 3G unlimited plan. Not sure if that's offered to the general public though.

      • +7

        $90pm for a 3G service, no matter it being unlimited, isn't great.

      • This offer is becomming so bad to customer. I think they like to increase the fee upto $3/day (50% value againt traditional $2/day) but no upgrade to 4G band instead of remaining band of 3G. It is really not good as ever. For me, we should say bye to Optus and look for teltra or vodafone better.

      • Can you post the SMS here? Mine hasn't received anything yet.

  • Can we use this with a dongle to have it work on a PC?

    • No

      • +7

        But you can use a phone as a hotspot and work it with the PC.

        • +1

          USB or WIFI tethering. I do it all the time because of my ADSLpoo

  • +6

    Why would you need unlimited data if you can’t share?

    • Yes. YouTubers upload or stream at 4k

    • +5

      Would a mobile carrier even bother selling an unlimited data plan if you could?

  • -7

    Is the download speed capped?

    • says no capped speed

  • +2

    No hotspot tagged traffic allowed so you'd better get an android phone that you can root

    • +2

      There is hotspot via your phone. You just cant pool the data with the other services on your account

    • +1

      No hotspot tagged traffic allowed

      Says who? It's not in the CIS. Have you seen the "Our Customer Terms"?

  • -8

    Can be shared with additional 5 data SIM ( extra cost 5$ per SIM). This is Great!!

    • +2

      Nope.. Data can not be shared

  • I thought our ozbargain motto was the other way around - https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/telstra-fights-bac…

  • +2

    Who will pay $199 for personally use?

    • +2

      you can cancel your internet and just use your phone as a hotspot. if you get it on a 24 month plan you can get it for $189 a month with a 256gb iphone X included in the plan.

      • +1

        That assumes it's cheaper than your mobile & home internet combined. I pay $75/month for both. Also assumes that only one person is using the home internet.

  • +38

    $4,776 across 24 months.

    This is OzBargain, not OzMoneyBags

    • +1

      Malcom's already signed up him, Lucy & the extended family.

      • +9

        Don't be silly, Malcolm doesn't pay for the internet, he (practically) invented it!

  • +1

    Is hotspot completely disabled? Without hotspot I doubt the majority of users use over ~15GB… Very overpriced if that's the case.

    Don't mind fairuse policy (obviously not home internet replacement etc), but if you can't hotspot worry free while away I don't see any point…

    • +4

      obviously not home internet replacement

      why not?

      • +8

        if only we could request a replacement to JV

        • +3

          I'm not broken.

        • +4

          @jv: but you're bent

        • -1

          @Titus Canby:

          but you're bent

          I'd have said twisted

      • +2

        Fair use policy. I don't believe any reasonable consumer would consider replacing a home internet connection with a mobile phone plan as fair use.

        When there's a data limit consumer law provides some protection, with no limit it's whatever a judge considers fair use and/or a reasonable consumer is led to believe by unlimited fair use.

        In this case it literally specifies in critical information summary data is for mobile use only, but I'm unsure if this means hotspotting is actually disabled…

        • +6

          Fair use policy.

          What's unfair about using data you've paid for?

          Why is it their business how you use your data?

        • Fair use policy. I don't believe any reasonable consumer would consider replacing a home internet connection with a mobile phone plan as fair use.

          Interesting thing here, we've been asking for a solid policy for a whole year now. Because we're doing EXACTLY that, but on a business level.

          The reply from Telstra is always about the same;
          "Policy? Umm…. Don't use enough to impact service in that area and we wont bother you"
          Or so is the understanding i walk away with every time i talk to them.

        • @MasterScythe:

          Fair Use policies are intentionally vague like this - it's a legal tactic… The idea is they have the upper hand but don't use it unless needed. If they chose to use it, you have no real protection.

        • @MasterScythe: yep, unless you're causing trouble, then it's too much trouble to police.

        • @dyl: its just funny to see that tactic used on a business model also.

          Lets just say where i would would have a lot of sway in a court room, if it came down to a he said she said type scenario.

          We basically just decided to block netflix and porn, and see if they're happy.

        • This logic is silly when there are already people doing exactly that with non unlimited plans.

          Making an unlimited plan doesn't change anything.

        • @samfisher5986:

          The fair use policy applies in exactly the same way for those plans. The only difference is as a consumer you're paying for say 15GB of data, if you then aren't able to use 15GB the unfair clauses (in the fair use policy) are nullified under consumer law.

          When it's advertised as unlimited you don't have the same kind of protection - you have to instead prove your usage was fair if they cut you off. It's not as simple as showing your usage was under your data amount and relying on consumer law.

          Note you could probably easily argue it's fair if it's under the 180GB allowance seen on the equivalent business plan, but that's about the best that can be easily argued. Over that and it's really fishy.

        • @dyl:

          Which is then not truly unlimited. There's a soft 'in Telstra's eyes' cap. It's just not published (like the last time they were in trouble for advertising unlimited….speed capped).

          So just make a 200Gb data plan and be done with it, without all the smoke and mirrors.

          This is entirely marketing though.

          People with limits, attempt to use all their data (otherwise you feel you're missing out on something you're paying for).

          Unlimited plans actually cause people (on average) to use less data. You're not missing on on anything, because you're data is unlimited (can always use it next month). So people pay less attention to how much they are using (and tend to use less).

          The one's it catches out are those expecting unlimited and penalised by Telco's 'Fair use'.

          2 hours of Netflix a day at 1080p is 180Gb a month, with doing nothing else. That's nothing. Add in people watching it at work, on the train and that could be double.

          Fair use to me would be minimum 500Gb on unlimited, or unfiar use would be people uploading (seeding constantly).

        • @jv:

          I don't think ignorance will win a court case, especially when you're indicating here you already believe they won't allow you to use it in this way.

        • @thargelios:

          Yeah I'm against "unlimited" advertising, but nothing is truly unlimited… It's like setting up a tent and camping at an all you can eat buffet for a week - doesn't work like that lol…

          Not sure on your calculations btw, it'd be closer to 80GB from what I can see. Also note the 180 figure is where I would assume consumer law won't provide much protection - it's more a contractual dispute afrer that point (ie is it against fair use policy or not?). There's no safety net after that point.

        • @dyl:

          I know I know nothing is truly unlimited.

          Besides your example, you couldn't eat there all week, as it's generally all you can eat for a period of time (ie one sitting). Same as unlimited data 'per month', not 'forever'.

          Netflix uses 3Gb per hour at 1080p (HD). 6Gb per day (2 hours), x 30 days (not including weekends where people binge watch) = 180Gb. Not sure where you get 80 from. Maybe SD? Watch 4k and that goes up to 7Gb per hour.

          I'd say a comparable unlimited would be what the competition offers at 'minimum'. As you'd base your decision on using Optus, Voda or Telstra (or others) on the available data.

          Telstra can't say, oh our Unlimited is only 150Gb (unofficially), when others have had plans at 200Gb.

          These terminologies influence buying decisions (and competitiveness), hence why the ACCC was hard on them last time. I'm sure if Optus finds out Telstra is doing a 'dodgy' on their unlimited plan, they attempt to haul them back in front of the ACCC.

          But yeh, I agree. Vague marketing terms are shyt. It pee's me off to no end how people exaggerate in their marketing without being technically 'dishonest'. (and this is coming from someone who does marketing).

        • @thargelios: iview uses 11gb in 1.5hours. lol

          https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2658434

          "My wife watched two or three episodes of Gardening Australia on iView, and 12GB were gone. On a 60GB satellite plan, that hurts."

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