Telstra to launch first unlimited mobile data plan for $69

Telstra will be launching its first smartphone unlimited data plan. Australia’s largest telco said its newest plan, available from Thursday, comes with unlimited talk, text and MMS to standard Australian numbers.

The Telstra Endless Data BYO plan will be priced at $69 per month and will include unlimited data with 40GB of data at uncapped speeds, followed by peace of mind data capped at 1.5Mbps for the remainder of the month. It will also have unlimited talk, text and MMS to standard Australian numbers plus exclusive extras for Telstra mobile customers.

These extra include unlimited Wi-Fi data at more than one million Telstra Air hotspots and access to every AFL, NRL and netball games for the 2018 season. This does not include Grand Finals and State of Origin.

As it is a BYO plan (bring your own phone), this does not include a smartphone and won’t hold customers with it for the usual 24-month period. It is a 12-month plan (minimum cost $828) and for personal use only. The plan will be available from May 3, Thursday.

“We know how important it is to our customers that they can access the fastest speeds available to them on our network. That’s why our unlimited plan comes with 40GB of data to enjoy at uncapped speeds, unlimited sports action, and then data capped at 1.5Mbps to get customers through the month if they need it,” Vicki Brady, Group Executive of Telstra Consumer & Small Business, said in a statement.

“We have invested billions in our network, pioneered world-leading 4G speeds and pushed our 4G coverage out to more than 99 percent of the population. We are now introducing the unlimited plan Australians tell us they want while maintaining the superior network experience they expect.”

Meanwhile, Telstra’s 4G mobile network experienced downtime for several hours on Tuesday. Customers nationwide reported that they could not make calls or receive them. The telco had fixed the problem after a few hours.