Telstra Set to Hike Fixed-Line, Mobile Service Charges in Q4 2012
Telstra Corporation said on Friday that upward adjustments on its home and mobile communication will be implemented effective at the start of October 2012, according to a blog post by the country's premier telco.
The most notable changes will impact on Telstra's home customers, according to Peter Jamieson, head of the company's customer service division, as calls by subscribers on all three HomeLine plans will be charged two cents more per call.
The most that customers will pay in a single landline call would be 22 cents, which Mr Jamieson said will wholly depend on the specific plans that subscribers were hooked to.
The new price adjustments will also reflect higher access fees for calls from home phones to 13 numbers, Telstra said, pushing the cost from 30 cents up to 35 cents.
Mr Jamieson noted that Telstra last imposes hikes on its fixed-line services about nine years ago while the access fees were last bumped up in 2008.
He explained that rising operating costs were the main reason Telstra had to roll out the service charges revisions "to ensure they reflect the cost of running our business."
"We know there's never a good time to make changes to prices but, like all companies, we need to periodically review our prices," News Ltd quoted Mr Jamieson as saying in a blog announcement posted on Friday.
The price hike will also hit Telstra's mobile customers, according to Mr Jamieson, as charges for Member, Phone and Casual mobile plans will commence ticking at 60-second block, which translates into $1 per minute of calls, even if the entire conversation lasted below the one-minute mark.
The previous charge scale was 50 cents per 30-second block, Telstra said, which subscribers find useful in notifying something in a huff with minimal costs.
In a statement, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief executive Teresa Corbin said the new mobile plans adjustments forthcoming from Telstra "means (subscribers are) going to chew through (their) credit allowance a lot quicker each month."
Ms Corbin noted too that Telstra's new charging plans for its fixed-line customers seem complicated enough for the average consumers for them to also make the necessary adjustments in maximising their chosen service packages.
"(But if you're not happy with the Telstra price changes, now is the time to shop around for a better deal," she suggested.
Her group viewed the giant telco's latest move as symptom of the growing competition environment in Australia's telecommunications industry in the run up for the full roll out of the national broadband network (NBN), immediate effect of which should be felt between 2015 and 2107.
The federal government aims to deliver high-speed internet access, via fibre-optic and wireless networks, across the country by 2021.