Telstra customers who are considering using their Telstra SIM cards overseas over the Christmas break will think twice, with new data roaming prices to make the service unattainable for some.
Beginning December 3 Telstra will introduce new zone to its Travel Pass product, effectively shifting countries currently in Zone 1 to the new Zone 2, and countries currently in Zone 2 to the new, more expensive Zone 3. Only New Zealand will remain in Zone 1, the cheapest option.
Zone 2 takes in most popular travel destinations in Asia. North America, South America and Europe are all part of Zone 3.
The structure of the Travel Passes will remain the same, with customers choosing either a 3-day, 7-day, 14-day or 30-day pass. The price of these packs increases in even increments from zone to zone. For example, a 3-day pass for Zone 1 is $15, for Zone 2 it’s $30 and for Zone 3 it’s $45. The inclusions and conditions remain the same for each option.
Effectively this means that customers travelling to Thailand and Indonesia will pay double what they currently pay, and travellers to all other countries can expect a 50 percent price increase.
Excess data will also increase by a huge 330 percent, up from $0.03 per MB to $0.10 per MB, or from $30 per GB to $100.
Telstra posted a notice of the changes on its company blog and is already facing fierce backlash from customers in the comments thread, many of whom write that they have planned international trips relying on the current pricing.
Update: Telstra has moved the comments from the post to a dedicated forum thread which can be found here..
How does the new Telstra roaming prices compare?
Stacking up these new prices beside comparable travel offers from Optus and Vodafone and you can see why Telstra customers are so upset.
Vodafone continues to leverage its global network and offer $5 per day roaming to 47 countries around the world. This travel product lets Vodafone Australia customers use their domestic plan inclusions in any of the eligible countries, and excess data is charged at $10 per GB. At $5 per day, Vodafone customers pay the same around the world as Telstra customers will when travelling to New Zealand, but have full use of their accounts.
Optus uses a similar zoning construct to Telstra. Customers pay $10 per day and can make unlimited calls, send unlimited messages and use 50MB of data. If multiple days are paid for in advance the data accumulates, i.e.: 10 days equals 500MB.
The Optus Travel Pack pricing is pretty much identical to Telstra’s Zone 2 fees, but includes more destinations like the USA, UK, Scandinavia and most of Asia.
Improved self-service
The silver lining in this announcement is that customers will be able to buy these travel bolt-ons during a trip using the Telstra 24x7 app on either Android phones and tablets or Apple devices.
You will be able to top-up overseas inclusions even if you have remaining credit, with the new data pooling with remaining data credit.
Previously Travel Passes needed to be activated before you left the country.
Shocked using tablet image via Shutterstock
Joseph Hanlon
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