Telstra CEO Andy Penn has taken to the Telstra Exchange Blog this afternoon to announce that Telstra customers will receive additional mobile and home broadband data, and pensioners will receive unlimited home phone calls to help them stay in touch.
From Thursday 19 March, Telstra will provide its consumer and small business home broadband customers (ADSL, NBN and Cable) with unlimited data at no additional charge on their plan until 30 April 2020. The data, which will be provided automatically, will help facilitate videoconferencing; voice over Wi-Fi, and cloud connectivity, all important tools when working from home or in isolation.
Telstra is also giving its consumer and small business mobile customers more data. Post-paid customers (both handheld and mobile broadband) can receive an extra 25GB of data on their plan to use in Australia within 30 days to facilitate the need for a more mobile workforce. Post-paid customers can apply for the extra data via Telstra 24×7 and My Telstra Apps from Thursday until 31 March and the data will be available within 24 hours.
Telstra Pre-paid customers with an active recharge of $40+ can get 10GB of additional data to use in Australia within 28-30 days (depending on your plan). Eligible pre-paid customers can apply for the extra data via Telstra 24×7 and My Telstra Apps from Thursday until 31 March and the offer will be applied to customer accounts within 24-48 hours.
Further, eligible pensioners with a Telstra home phone plan will also be able to make unlimited local, national and 13/1300 calls, and calls to Australian mobiles, from their home phone in Australia to make staying in touch with friends and family simpler. This is available from Thursday until the 30th April.
With data traffic increasing Telstra is encouraging customers to make use of the self-service tools available on the latest Telstra 24×7 for iOS and Android. This allows customers to check account information and pay bills while easing the burden on Telstra call centres.
Andy notes that COVID-19 is a global challenge, we are all affected, and we all need to play our part in the response.
Here I was thinking telstra was going to try and get compeditive. Turns out they are just trying to see like the good guys.
None of this would be a problem for telstra in the first place if they didn’t charge so much to begin with.