Telstra increasing mobile prices, adding more data and 5G on their basic plan

If that cost of living pressure is starting to hit, strap in – it’s going to keep hurting. Telstra today announcing they are increasing the prices on their monthly mobile plans by between $3 and $4 due to CPI.

Now, I have to say that in all my years doing this I’ve never heard of a CPI based increase in telco pricing, but I could be wrong – maybe this is just more explicit this time around. But in a world of very competitive pricing across all telcos, this one does stand out a bit.

Telstra’s “Small” plan is being renamed “Basic”, and goes up from $55 a month to $58 a month, but for the first time 5G is now part of that plan – with a catch. More on that soon.

The “Medium” plan is now called “Essential” and goes from $65 to $68, with a huge data boost from 80GB per month to 180GB per month.

At the top end of town, the Large plan becomes “Premium” and goes up $4 a month from $85 to $89 and gets a whopping 300GB of data per month up from 120GB.

For those on the Basic plan who are now getting 5G for the first time, take note, those speed tests you do won’t look amazing – the Basic Plan is also capped at 250Mbps within the allowed 40GB of data.

You’ve gotta admit, its a great way to add to the bottom line, even at a low estimate of 10 million customers, that’s $30,000,000 a month added, so yeah, it helps the business.

But in reality, it plays to the complacency and loyalty of Aussies.

You can get 42GB of data with Aldi Mobile for $35 a month. $23 less than Telstra, and yes, it’s on the Telstra network. Now if you think that Aldi’s “Part” of the Telstra network is a worry, you’re wrong, but fine – go to Boost Mobile.

Boost uses the full Telstra network, and you can get 40GB of data every 28 days for $30! Come on folks, be smart with your money.

The new Telstra prices kick in from July 1.