Hot on the heels of the news this morning that Google has announced the Nexus 5 that we’ve all been waiting for, we’ve been in touch with Australia’s telcos to find out who’ll possibly be offering the Nexus 5 for sale locally on their plans.
Telstra have confirmed to Ausdroid this morning that it is investigating the option of offering the Nexus 5 for sale on Telstra plans.
A Telstra spokesperson told Ausdroid:
Telstra always endeavours to bring the latest technology to our customers and is currently investigating including the Nexus 5 with Android 4.4 KitKat operating system in its range. Customers who would like to be kept informed can register their interest here: Telstra EOI Page
What are your thoughts, are you going to buy outright or are you looking at carrier plan options?
Telstra most likely won’t stock it. Fact is that Telstra isn’t ALLOWED to modify the stock OS on the Nexus 5, which doesn’t appeal to them at all. They want to modify it, install bloatware and manage updates. Google won’t allow them to do this, they learnt from the experience they had with the Galaxy Nexus and Verizon in the US.
It’s the same reason the Nexus 4 was never made available from Telstra.
They stocked other nexus devices in the past before…..
The last nexus device they stocked (the Galaxy Nexus) was a phone they could modify, install bloatware and manage updates. The next nexus after the GNexus, the N4, didn’t allow this as part of the Terms of Sale from Google, so Telstra never stocked it. The N5 is the same case and I doubt they will stock it. I had a GNexus from Telstra and the “Nexus Experience” was ruined by the massive massive delays in Telstra updating the OS. Thankfully I don’t stick to stock for more than a week to make sure there are no issues with the… Read more »
Are you sure the gnex had bloatware on it from Telstra? I don’t remember seeing any bloatware. It had the non google control release firmware, that the rest of the world got. But no telstra bloatware from memory.
It shipped with the old Telstra One app and 1 other app that I can’t recall the name of.
I had one on contract and there was no Telstra branding on it. None. Also when the n4 came out Telstra said it wouldn’t sell it because it only wanted to sell 4G phones
That is not what I remember, but oh well. Having to wait for Telstra to release updates was still stupid 🙂
Hi Josh,
Can confirm after using multiple Telstra branded Galaxy Nexus devices that there was definitely no carrier apps installed or deviation from the AOSP experience.
The only difference was the source of the phones was from Samsung as opposed to directly from Google.
The Nexus 4 was only not stocked due to Telstra advising at the time that they would like to move forward with LTE devices and as we all know the Nexus 4 did not come with LTE, we posted about this with a direct quote from Telstra at the time : http://ausdroid.net/2012/10/31/telstra-will-not-stock-the-nexus-4-or-nexus-7-3g-focused-on-ranging-lte-devices/
Hope this helps.
Hey Daniel, seems my memory ended up falling me this time. I only had my gnex for a year before I replaced it. Thanks for info.
Yes it did. Telstra altered the ROM and added their skin to it. Nothing much in add-ons but stopped the device from receiving updates directly from Google when we went from 4.0.1 forward.
haha There was never any skin applied to the Telstra Nexus devices…. Please provide screenshots!
This will never happen.
If you get it through Telstra you’ll be able to put the stock image on from google anyways, so if its cheaper and you want a plan, its a no brainer.
I use telstra but I’m buying it outright (in fact I already have) I’m looking forward to me LTE goodness.
Nooo!!!! and YES!!!!
It comes down to bloat and how locked down it is.
If they handle it like the Galaxy Nexus, then I hope they don’t even touch it.
But if they just sell the same or near as phone from Google, then it will be great!
I know if they lock it down, we can just flash the right software but if Google can control the updates and Telstra stay clear then this would be awesome. It would be the iPhone of the Android world (updates wise).
One can only dream though
For the right price I’d go for it on Telstra…
What’s the point? When you can get it cheaper outright.
I guess the point is if you plan on staying with telstra for 2 years may as well get the phone for free on a contract
Do Telstra not have cheaper plans for BYO?
I think it’s only $10 a month cheaper so $240 over 2 years less than the out right price
I suppose Vodafone are only barely better. I think you save $15 a month which comes out closer, and you get the freedom of not being locked in. Hopefully there’s some better options in 2014 when my contract is up.
Telstra being Telstra you will end up paying more for it long term. Buy outright go on the sim only plan best option. Plus they get the handset from LG directly not Google the buy price from LG will be more expensive. That’s what happened when local retailers in Australia stocked the LG Nexus 4.