After Vodafone led the charge during March and increased plan costs by $5 per month, it seems that the other major players; Optus, Telstra and — through their network ties — Boost Mobile are all following suit in some form.
As Vodafone did, Boost is emailing clients early to get on the front foot with the email received by the customers stating:
From time to time the prices of our services are reviewed, and the decision has been made to increase the prices of our plans from 4 July 2023. We know any price rise is hard and it’s not a decision that has been taken lightly.
Then goes on to explain the cost increase that users will see from July, equating to $5 per month for many plans. For a $30 per month plan, that equates to a 16.6% increase (I might need to speak to my boss about a 16.6% pay increase) which, given the cost of living these days will likely prompt some to shop around. Obviously, for the higher-cost plans, that percentage decreases but will still impact family budgets.
Here’s the full breakdown of changes:
| Current Recharge | Recharge from 4 July 2023 | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| $10 for 3GB | $12 for 5GB | 7 days |
| $20 for 5GB | $22 for 7GB | 28 days |
| $30 for 20GB | $35 for 25GB | 28 days |
| $40 for 30GB | $45 for 35GB | 28 days |
| $50 for 40GB | $55 for 45GB | 28 days |
| $70 for 65GB | $70 for 90GB (no price change) | 28 days |
| $200 for 130GB | $230 for 160GB | 12 months |
| $300 for 240GB | $300 for 240GB (no change) | 12 months |
With plans increasing with multiple carriers; Telstra included, already increasing prices, it’s almost inevitable now that all carriers will do the same. In reference to postpaid plans, Telstra’s site notes:
Telstra will use the CPI rate released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the 12 months to the March quarter. Any increase will be rounded to the nearest dollar and will occur from our July billing cycle. We’ll let you know before any changes take effect.
It’s this tie to Telstra and their increase that has almost certainly forced the hand of Boost to increase consumer costs. We reached out to both companies for comment and, despite the late hour, receive an extremely prompt response from a Boost Spokesperson:
Boost Mobile remains deeply committed to delivering ongoing great value for Australians, and it continues to offer this with full coverage of the Telstra 3G, 4G and 5G mobile networks. This includes access for less than $20 per month when buying a $230 recharge with 12-month expiry.
For me, that passion and commitment to providing customers value are just a couple of the reasons I’ll be staying with Boost.
It’s an interesting space we’re in right now with the cost of living pressures pushing many families hard. There will almost certainly be cheaper plans available, but the question is: Will you get the coverage and inclusions you need?
Editors Note: Telstra provided the following response to our query regarding the price increases on pre-paid plans:
There is a range of factors we’ve taken into account when making this decision. Maintaining both the affordability of our services and our ability to continue investing is a tough balancing act, and one that we feel the weight of given how important connectivity is.
Increasing our prices means we can continue investing in the things that matter for our customers like our mobile network, products and services. Like most businesses in Australia, we are also responding to increasing costs.
If further comments are provided by other carriers, we’ll update this post again.
What have you got against Belong, you never make any posts about them.
FYI: I mentioned awhile ago, my original $10 plan, went to $15, now going to $19.
5G… whats that, no Telstra coverage here. Do all my downloading on unlimited NBN anyway.
Probably the main reason why we don’t mention Belong as often is that Boost has access to Telstra’s entire network footprint, whereas Belong only has access to Telstra Wholesale. In metro and even regional areas, this doesn’t make a big difference, but outside those areas, there is a measurable difference.
Granted, it won’t affect most customers as Australians are mostly city dwellers… but there are a few customers for whom similar pricing and yet less coverage matters.
Fair enough, But Belong is a division of Telstra, not just wholesale, so I think its worth mentioning. And in Metro it is, in my experience, just as reliable as Telstra’s main network. And now it has VoLTE it’s even better 🙂
all these MVNOS will keep increasing the price
i will never signup to a company have no network
so with boost mobile
its a telstra simcard and stamped with different name ” boost mobile ”
why bother ?
just go straight to telstra
I use Boost because you get the full retail Telstra network for less than Telstra charges because they’re an MNVO.
They don’t have the overheads that Telstra does, so they can afford to charge less than the network owner.
Each to their own as they say.
I get that
but on the website i see only the most expensive plan got full speed and the rest capped to 250mbps like aldi mobile
are you paying less to get full coverage or full speed ?
its saying on boost website the 70 bucks plan the only one got full speed no 250mbps cap
Coverage is important for me…
While I’ve had some mind-blowing speedtests, I haven’t seen a real-world advantage to the speed of 5G at this stage. Particularly given how good our 4G networks are in Australia.
Because Boost is significantly cheaper than Telstra and without the hassle of having to sign up for a contract with undesirable terms.
“why bother ? just go straight to telstra”
Because I prefer to pay less not more!!
That’s the main reason I use Boost over Telstra.
only the 70 bucks plan got full speed of 5G
the rest are capped to 250mbps like Aldi mobile plans
so you are still paying 70 bucks a month
It is about using the Telstra coverage more cheaply.
Because just like with mmWave and, what’s you’re other obsession, Wifi6 something? I don’t actually give a damn about having the fastest of the fast on my mobile handset in order to watch YouTube videos or browse the Gram. Money and coverage matter to me far far more