Giant telco Telstra Corporation introduced this week its fresh service offering called 'Everyday Connect', which the company said will provide flexibility to subscribers' shifting communication habits.

The adjustment, Telstra said, is the telco's answer to the rising emergence of mobile lifestyle among Australians, which presumably was spurred by the prevalence of smartphones and tablets over the past few years.

In a statement, Australia's leading telecommunications firm said that as mobile phones continue to dominate the current landscape, which spiked by some 40 percent over the last two years, crucial changes need to be rolled out if only to ensure the delivery of excellent communication services.

As per the new billing policy, Telstra said every minute of calls facilitated through its network will now cost $1.39, with the actual transaction incurring for consumers charges of 99 cents per minute.

The extra charge of 40 cents covers for the interconnection fees, the company said.

The new scheme, which replaces the one unveiled by the firm a year ago, also revises Telstra's mobile connectivity costs and allowances.

Under its new mobile data plans, Telstra subscribers opting for the $50 plan will be given limits of 1GB data processing each month while the $60 plan entitles a customer up to 1.5GB within the same period.

Up to 500MB were shaved off from both offerings as Telstra disclosed that "the vast majority of our mobile customers don't use their full data allowances."

However, customers wishing to purchase additional data access can do so independent of their existing account parameters, a Telstra spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.

Also, subscribers can still enjoy free calls during off-peak hours in the evening and weekends or take advantage of other plans with significant freebies, which Telstra said should cancel out whatever cost increase to arise from the billing guidelines.

Overall though, Telstra maintained that "our call rates are competitive while allowing us to maintain an appropriate level of investment in our network."

Analysts agreed that the adjustments announced by Telstra and other firms in the past few months were mostly meant to rationalise their respective network traffics while coping at the same time with increasing demands, both for voice and data services.

Specifically, the caps imposed on customers' monthly data access, which Optus and Vodafone have both adopted earlier, were intended to free up precious network bandwidths.

Telsyte senior analyst Rodney Gedda is convinced that the new policies will not hurt the quality of services that Telstra gives out to majority of its subscribers.

If changes would be noticeable at all, it would be on the part of heavy data users, Mr Gedda told The Telegraph, "which (Telstra) may have wanted to slow down for network planning and capacity reasons."

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