If you're one of the 68% of Australians who own more than one smart device, you may wonder if there's a simpler way of organising your data use. Now, in a first for any Australian telco, Telstra has announced it is introducing shared data packages for customers with multiple devices.
Telstra’s Every Day Connect Data Share Packages will allow you to share your mobile plan’s data allowance between your smartphone and tablet. Customers can connect up to four mobile devices to a single pool of data on Telstra’s mobile network, and combine each device’s usage on a single monthly bill.
This only works for data though, so while you could connect multiple phones to the same account, only one could make and receive calls and messages.
How it works
As you might expect, Telstra's service doesn’t come for free. To sign up to a Data Share Package, expect to have $10 added on to your plan’s monthly bill, as well as a monthly $10 SIM card fee for each device you wish to add. That's right, $10 per month for the privilege of sharing data and $10 per month for each extra device you connect.
So, for example, if you’re signed up to Telstra’s $60 per month Every Day Connect Plan, and want to share your included 1GB of data between your smartphone and a tablet, your monthly bill would jump up to $80.
Your Data Share SIM will come with an extra 100MB of shareable data – so you’ll have 1.1GB of data to use between your smartphone and tablet.
To sweeten the deal (and get the bitter taste of overpaying out of your mouth) Telstra is offering users who sign up between now and December 31 st 2013 a bonus 1GB of data each month, for the first 12 months of their plan. But even factoring in the free GB, it’s still a costly way to share data.
Cheaper alternatives
There are plenty of cheaper options if you have a tablet that you’d like to connect to a data-only plan. Yatango and amaysim both offer competitively priced prepaid data options if you bring your own device – for $19.90, you can receive 2.5GB per month with amaysim, and for $20 Yatango is offering 3GB of data. If you don't need so much data, you could pay even less.
Both amaysim and Yatango's plans are contract-free, month-to-month prepaid options, meaning you’re not locked in - and there’s no worries about bill shock from going over your included data.
If you'd prefer a post-paid plan, $20 each month will get you 2GB of data each month with Virgin Mobile on a no-contract, month-to-month basis. And if you're already a Virgin Mobile smartphone customer, bundling this plan with your mobile bill will save you $5 each month.
For customers happy to sign on for a 12-month contract, Vodafone offer a SIM-only 2.5GB mobile broadband plan, also for $20 per month.
Despite not being offered on a 'data share' basis like Telstra's new packages, all of these plans offer more GB than you’ll get on the Telstra Data Share plans, for the same monthly price or less.
Of course, if you really want to share your phone’s data amongst your other devices, you can always tether (use your phone’s Internet connection as a mobile hotspot) – see our guide here for more info. Tethering is easy and best of all, absolutely free.
Sharing is not caring
Despite this, Telstra is pushing the shared packages as a 'simple solution' designed to meet the needs of customers with multiple devices. According to Telstra’s research, 80% of Australians would benefit from sharing their data across their smartphones and tablets.
Compared to the options provided by competing telcos and MVNOs, the plan benefits that Telstra is promoting – seeing all your device’s data use on a single bill, having one source of data for all of your devices, etc. – really don’t outweigh the $20 per month minimum you’ll pay for the service.
It is a good idea, though, and one we hope the other telcos have in the pipeline already. You can be sure that when Optus and Vodafone offer plan sharing, it won't be such a hit to the hip-pocket.
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