Telstra joins iPhone

Telstra has unveiled pricing for the iPhone come July 11, but remains quiet on the all-important question of data.

After plenty of speculation Telstra’s “stick to your knitting” comments had put it out of the running for the iPhone, the telco’s PR machine put out a press release late yesterday announcing it would starting offering the iPhone on Friday July 11, the same day as Vodafone and Optus.Unlike the competition, Telstra has already released its iPhone pricing - probably because it doesn’t consider itself to be in a price war with Vodafone and Optus. The fact that iPhones on Optus and Vodafone will drop back to painfully slow GPRS speeds when you’re outside the cities lets Telstra demand premium pricing for use of its Next G network.

The Next G iPhone plans start at $30 per month, with an upfront cost of $279 for the 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model. Customers will receive the 8GB iPhone for $0 up front on an $80 plan and either the 8GB or the 16GB model for $0 up front with plans starting at $100 per month. All plans include free Wi-Fi access at Telstra hotspots and require a 24-month contract.

This is more detail than the competition are giving away but it still doesn’t tell us the most important thing, how much data can you use per month? There’s little point in having high speed data access *almost* “every where you need it” if it’s too expensive to use. Telstra’s existing data plans aren’t very encouraging. A typical $100 Next G phone plan offers $90 of voice calls and $10 of data at $2 per MB, which is a pathetic 5 MB of data per month. This just isn’t going to cut it with the iPhone, it chews up almost that much data in the background before you even do anything. You’ll need to cough up even more cash if you want to get a decent amount of data to play with each month.

I put this to Telstra and asked if Next G iPhone users would get a better deal on data. “We’re still holding a few cards close to our chest and will have more to announce closer to launch day,” was the cautious reply. If Telstra can’t come to the party with decent data allowances, city-slickers would be far better off on Optus or Vodafone. If Telstra offers data discounts to iPhone owners and not other users, it will have a riot on its hands.

How do you think Telstra will play this one? Does the data allowance influence your choice of mobile provider?

Source www.smh.com.au