Telstra are a big 300 pound gorilla - they could be doing great things for technology in Australia by leading the way with competitive pricing and giving people services that could change the way they use mobile devices, or internet access. However, Telstra sit on their arse and only react when they're forced to. After a few people lately have been telling me that they use Telstra's service and actually like it, I was concerned, knowing they're the worst value for money in every consumer market they compete in. Here is a list I have compiled comparing Telstra to a solid, reliable and long running competitor.

Mobile Telephony
All of the other telcos are offering 3G service for the same prices as their GSM network, so to compare apples to apples, this is Telstra's NextG pricing (which is the only cap plan I can see that they offer). This is one area where Telstra does have somewhat of an advantage, as their network does has greater reach than the others. However, for those living in metro areas, all the telcos are virtually identical.

Telstra NextG
$49 cap ($200 credit), 80c/min + 37c flagfall, 25c SMS, 60c/min voicemail retrieval

Hutchinson 3
$49 cap ($300 credit), 70c/min + 25c flagfall, 25c SMS, 30c/min voicemail retrieval

Mobile Broadband
Mobile broadband has hit bargain prices lately, but Telstra is yet to budge on their pricing. From what I can tell, Telstra even make you pay for a modem, where as every other telco throws one in for free or a minimal cost.

Telstra
$84.95/month - 1GB (need to purchase modem - $299)

Vodafone
$39/month - 5GB (free USB modem)

ADSL Internet Access - 1500/256
The most common form of internet access in Australia, is regular ADSL. 1500 is a popular speed so that's what I've chosen to compare. If you compare ADSL 2, the price gap is even more significant.

Telstra
$69.95/month - 12GB (bundled with Telstra home phone)
counts uploaded data & additional usage is $153.60/gb - no option for speed cap

Internode
$69.95/month - 20GB (no need to bundle to get lower price)
uploads not counted, additional usage is $5/gb - or option to cap speed instead

Home Phone
This is the only area where Telstra come out even. I couldn't find an unbundled home phone plan that was cheaper than Telstra's for local calls and calls to mobiles. If you make a lot of international or STD calls, there are good deals to be had elsewhere than Telstra. However, VOIP is by far the cheapest option if you have an internet connection.

Telstra
$26.95/month - 20c/local call - 39c flagfall on timed calls, 37c/min to mobiles

Pennytel (VOIP)
No monthly charge, 8c/untimed anywhere in Australia (no flagfall), 13c/min to mobiles

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What about bundling?
If you get all your services from Telstra, they will give you a discount. But it's not much according to their website. Get your home phone, mobile phone and internet access via Tesltra and they'll give you 125 free SMS, or 125 free local calls, or $25 credit across your mobiles & landline to call each other. Pissweak.

Telstra has a better service, so I don't mind paying a premium.
Is it really? If you look at customer satisfaction levels, Telstra is never on top.

Roy Morgan ISP Customer Satisfaction Survey: http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2007/625/
Choice ISP satisfaction survey: http://www.choice.com.au/viewArticle...8&catId=100518
(I couldn't find any for home phone/mobile or Telstra in general)

Research before signing up for telecommunications services
If you research, you'll find that Telstra, often, come out on bottom and you can save yourself a whole bunch of money.

Just want to also add that when you go on the 3 Cap plans, within the cap you get to up to $120 worth of international calls as part of the cap. To me, this was the decider when I went with 3.

Excellent point - their International SMS's are the same price as local ones. Telstra charge 50c for an international SMS.

I use Matilda Internet, which bundles the phone line into any ADSL2 plan. It is really an Optus phone line. Mine is a $80 for ADSL2 20G+20G (offpeak). Only downloads counted.

International call prices are quite good. For Malaysia and Singapore, comparable to Mynetfone VOIP. But as mentioned above, nothing beats VOIP for local calls. Pennytel is on the inexpensive side of VOIP, so most costs are even lower.

There's an offer for a low $10 "churn" fee too.

www.matilda.net.au

Vodafone has same price international SMS too, which is good for Twitter.

Excellent post! This should be stickied and put up on the main page and advertised everywhere.

I hate Telstra with a passion. As was said, they could be leading the way with their billion dollar profits, and yet we're incredibly far behind other countries in terms of infrastructure.

Seriously, the word needs to get out from within the geek community into the wider community. They're making billions of dollars off of people's naivety and laziness. What's worse, is that they have people convinced they're the best! I tried to illustrate to my sister that she could be saving money with her connection but she wouldn't listen, citing that she'd never heard of Internode and therefore didn't trust them 0.o

I've posted price comparisons previously to show that in the country, Telstra is cheaper than internode. The price should not be looked at independently of other factors that you receive.

You have $26.95 for telstra line rental when, if you are going to get VOIP, the budget plan at 19.95 is obviously much cheaper and very competitive.

Great post - confirms in a simple rundown what everyones known for years

Thanks, I can just link this post next time someone asks why everyone hates telstra

This sinks Telstra's last competitive part:

Optus have a $19.95 a month phone plan that you can get ADSL with - beats Telstra by $7 a month

Do your research tiprya,
Telstra have had that plan for years now

And you can only get it in certain circumstances (i.e: with other Optus services).

That $19.95 plan from Telstra does not work with ADSL2 by the way, you get charged a Line Sharing Fee and it makes it quite expensive.

If you read Telstra's documentation you'll find they expressly EXCLUDE Voip connection to their $19.95 plan. I rang and checked. Perhaps they might not detect it being done, but their paperwork says "No".

Our new federal government will also have trouble persuading Telstra to come onboard to provide the fast internet service which was part of Labors election pledge.
Telstra own the copper lines and there isn't anyway known that they are going to allow others to take control of them.
As usual we are the ones who have been screwed by politicians promising things they can't deliver and by monopolistic companies strangling competition.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22885008-2,00.html

Has it been proven that Telstra own the copper wire? It was all constructed whilst it was a government entity. Is it possible the copper wire could be returned into public hands/a separate company that can deal with the government?

Maybe the PMG/Telecom/Telstra should have been left as a public utility in the first place.

At least they would be accountable to provide the infrastructure, as opposed to being accountable to shareholders.

Hey, I didn't vote for the Libs