Telstra to keep us up to date with device updates

For some time now, Telstra have had a ‘Smartphone Software Updates’ page on their website, a place where they could list any information they might have about various different updates for their handsets. While this is a great idea in theory, it didn’t really work out quite so well in practice.

There was only very basic information given – some phone models were given no info at all – and what WAS there was often incorrect. The biggest issue was that the page wasn’t updated very often, sometimes going weeks or even months without any change.  Whenever they were asked about the status of different updates, Telstra would often just point to the list without saying too much more about it.

This appears set to change.

Today, Telstra added a Device Updates section to their ‘CrowdSupport’ forum. This new section contained a detailed list of all software updates in development, with a promise that the list would be updated weekly. This new list is much more in-depth, including information on how far they are through testing, how much testing they plan to do and an exact date they expect it done by.

This is a far cry from their previous “we’ll let you know when it’s done” approach. They’ve obviously made a conscious decision to be more open and honest about the whole process, which is a refreshing and welcome change. While it remains to be seen how long they’ll keep this up for, this approach is definitely a step in the right direction.

This story was written by Joel Villis, a guest writer who may be joining us soon at Ausdroid.