From the image above, found on Telstra’s website, clearly shows that they have upped the price of the original HTC Desire from the original $49 cap to $0 upfront on the $79 cap. I have absolutely no idea as to why Telstra have done this, though I’m sure there’s a logical reasoning behind it (surely not the new added data plans..). We can also note that it says the Desire is sold out which isn’t something new at all, it’s forever going between available and out of stock. Maybe if they’d just hurry up and bring out a QWERTY slider..
Telstra, I don’t think this is the way to bring a little competition to Vodafone’s new ‘infinite’ plans at all. One last thing I’d like to point out ‘EXCLUSIVE TO TELSTRA‘, as far as I know that’s no longer the case as Telstra only had a 6 month exclusivity deal with HTC, not endless one like Vodafone has on the Desire HD.
Looks like telstra alerts you if you get close to download limits too. : “For customers who are concerned they won’t know how much data they’re using, Browsing Packs provide assurance by alerting customers via SMS when they reach 80% and 100% of their monthly usage. ” Maybe they did this already – I never noticed. I’d be interested to see which other providers do this now. Virgin had a number of complaints a while back with iphone users racking up huge bills on their high excess data charges… Hard to make sense of everything in the world of “confusion… Read more »
Those alerts hardly work. More often than not I don’t receive the alert at all, when it does get received its late (and voice credit gets hammered).
Telstra are basically afraid of losing smartphone customers so they move pricing to be inline with competitors (particularly to Optus and their network resellers). Since the iphone took off, Telstra have been losing customers big time, and are trying to claw their way back by getting more sensible with pricing. When the galaxy was 49 per month on optus, the desire was 49, now the galaxy is 59 with optus, and telstra bump their minimum plan back up to the next highest plan at 79 (perhaps because they lack the flexibility to come up with anything else for now). Silly… Read more »
Bag Telstra all you want but at least we have phone service in the sticks. Also they have dropped the N8 price by $ 200.00 outright. And unless you have to pay for the phone outright I cant see how the Desire has incresed in price.
Go to another carrier and stop complaining
I most certenly liked your innovative angle that you have on the topic. Certainly wasn’t thinking on this at the time I begun searching for tips. Your ideas was totally easy to get. Happy to find that there’s an person here that gets it exactly what its is talking about.
I’m sure I just saw the desire for $49 cap plan in their latest catalog which just arrived today. Maybe they had a change of heart lol.
Wouldn’t at all be surprised
I went into a Telstra store yesterday and the ticketing was still $0 on $49, didn’t go to purchase though as system may have changed.
So I take it that Telstra is everyone’s favourite carrier, right?
No comment. 😛
What’s funny is that when Telstra launched their new caps they said something like “‘X amount’ of credit to call or text to ANY network” like it was a new idea. And the T-Touch Tab, “Keeping your family functional”… Well that explains social domestic dysfunction then… the tab is the answer to all my problems at home! 🙂 I work at allphones with a telstra shop across and another telstra dealer 3 shops down, so it’s fun to watch the advertising exploits… and the cranky customers… …their coverage is great though… but that seems to be all – so far… Read more »
As someone that needs to browse and receive emails while not in the office, coverage is everything.
Indeed…no arguments there. I just can’t understand their attitude regarding the price they expect consumers to pay, although their newer plans are a little more competitive. I suppose my attitude can be influenced a little by the amount of customers I talk to that have bad experiences with Telstra.
However, these days coverage superiority is becoming less and less exclusively Telstra’s, which I think is beneficial to the market overall (with carrier bias aside).
thats not the garden city store by any chance
Nah, in Tassie.
Suggest trying Twonky media server for DLNA, it’s the only way I’ve had any success getting my PS3 to see my DHD.
The min total cost hasn’t been updated >.>
Hey Guys, just to make sure that the Telstra facts are correct, the Desire is no longer available on the $49cap as a subsidised phone, as has been stated, however, it is available on the $49 as an MRO phone, you will end up paying just over $60 a month for 2 years. same sort of deal as with the Galaxy S. ($69 a month for the galaxy). The story I have as to why this has occurred, or so I have been told, is that Telstra are using their subsidised budget on the HTC mozart (windows phone 7), sucks… Read more »
the galaxy S is $49 on optus and $39 on Virgin again Telstra=Fail
Telstra=Fail
Telstra does cause some headscratching sometimes! They have the Nokia N8 listed at $960 outright. The thing is RRP’d at $750 by Nokia in Australia and available around the traps in the low $600s already.
Sure it’s not an Android-based example but charging above RRP to buy outright? What gives? And what other phones do they do this to.
They do indeed cause some head scratching sometimes. Not sure what they had in mind here. That said, I’m sure they sell a few of them as well. If nothing else, it gives them room to move – they can try to sell them to unsuspecting customers at full price but if that fails, drop the price by $200. The customer goes wow thanks a lot, and Telstra still makes good $$$ out of it.
Carrier Fanboy is surely a contradiction of terms. I shudder to think that such a thing is possible. Except in the case of employees, shareholders, etc.
So Ray, whats it like working for Telstra anyway?
I don’t work for Telstra. I’m just getting sick and tired of consumers and websites posting rubbish/incorrect/inaccurate/misleading information about carriers and businesses in general.
It could have been posted about Optus for all I care. The constant bashing by the fanboys of other carriers is starting to get really old and repetitive. It has been for quite a while now.
Um… Ray. OK. Can you now get the Desire for $49 a month as you previously could? No Therefore the Desire is no longer available for $49 a month, you have to pay $79 just to get it. That completely places it out of most user’s price ranges. We don’t care how much data or calls you get with the plan. The $49 plan (especially the new one with 1Gb) has plenty of those included for pretty much everyone. So THAT would have a been a great plan for the Desire. But Telstra removed that as an option for the… Read more »
“The Desire is no longer available for $49 a month” is exactly right – and the story should have been titled exactly that with a better explanation/research done. It’s not a price hike at all though. It’s just titled that way to once again make Telstra look like the bad guys.
My whole point is that a little more research could have been done and the story worded differently to reflect what has really happened. Even the image posted shows incorrect details.
Anyway, I’m done arguing this.
every carrier has it’s good and bad points, you have to understand that people have opinions and the mobile market is large with many carriers all competing with each other in this country. Telstra though, are far from competing with other carriers, they are considered to have the worst customer service amongst all Australian mobile carriers, highest prices for services etc. These are my opinions though, from my own experiences with them as an ex mobile customer and broadband customer, also my gf’s whole family have mobiles with Telstra and also Broadband, so what I experienced in my days with… Read more »
The $49 cap included 200Mb data and $450 calls/sms/etc. Just yesterday they advertised free data pack upgrades for a huge range of post-paid can cap plans – see here –> http://exchange.telstra.com.au/2010/11/22/social-networking-over-your-mobile-gets-even-cheaper/
The $79 cap includes 2000mb (2gb) data and $750 calls/sms/etc. They haven’t really increased the price at all – they’ve just removed the $49 cap plan from the website. Whether it’s still available in store or over the phone is unknown.
Some more research could have been done before straight away trying to hit Telstra on the head.
Um, but Ray, the end result is that they have hiked the price on the Desire. You can no longer get it at $49. Who cares how much ‘stuff’ you get with the new plan, the point is you can’t, according to the website, get the Desire for anything less than $79 a month
Which is insane.
They haven’t hiked the price – the $79 plan has always been available. They have simply “REMOVED” the $49 plan. It doesn’t make it any more expensive.
If it was a $79 plan and only included the calls/sms/data that came with the $49 plan then it would be a price hike – and I wouldn’t be supporting it. This is not the case though. For $79, you get a lot more.
“Telstra hike the lowest price up on the HTC Desire”, r u satisfied?
Perhaps it’s just *this version* of the Desire that’s exclusive to Telstra. There are two versions, and theirs is the only one that works properly on the NextG network.
Glad I got my Desire on the cheap old plan, that’s for sure.
Make sure you get your free data pack upgrade –> http://exchange.telstra.com.au/2010/11/22/social-networking-over-your-mobile-gets-even-cheaper/
Give Telstra a call and they will apply the upgrade for you right away. 🙂
Thanks for the info Ray. Much appreciated.
Nah you misunderstood, its the crazy pricing that is exclusive to Telstra
Hey you’re talking about Telstra, Nothing ever makes sense with what ever they do!But clearly its either a way to attempt to slow down the sales to ensure that they have a minimum about on hand to attempt to avoid the so called “out of stock” situation.
Anyway I’m glad that I got mine when they were going out for $49 a month 😉