news Telstra has said that a price comparison of some of its mobile and Internet plans that suggested consumers are paying a premium of up to 92% over other telcos’ products is “flawed”.
The analysis, made by consumer advocacy group Choice, is “flawed and takes into consideration just a handful of the many plans we provide and ignores the rest, especially the key plans we promote to customers”, Telstra executive director of fixed products and services, Stuart Bird, said in a post on its Exchange blog.
Bird further suggested that Choice had “missed” many of its most popular and comparable plans and “failed to consider things customers tell us are most important”.
Bird said these aspects included the “breadth, speeds and availability” of Telstra’s network, although he did not address the recent outages in its statement.
Additionally, the executive said the extras Telstra included were also popular with its customer base, such as “free and unlimited” access to Australia’s largest Wi-Fi network, and other freebies like sports season passes, home broadband and mobile security, a Telstra TV video streaming device, and Apple Music (on some plans).
Bird said that, in arriving at its claim of a 90% price premium on broadband (Editor’s note: Choice actually said 92%. See the full article here), Choice had “ignored” both Telstra’s promoted $75 a month 1000GB Belong broadband plan and its $99 a month 1000GB Best Bundle Ever plan in the price comparison.
The Telstra executive further protested that, when comparing bundles with a streaming video device included, Choice had “overlooked” its “most popular and extensively promoted option”, the $99 Best Bundle Ever plan.
That deal, Bird said, comes with 1000GB of data, free access to Australia’s largest Wi-Fi Network (Telstra AIR), a free and exclusive Telstra TV streaming video device, free Telstra Broadband Protect keeping families safe online and national, standard fixed line and standard Australian mobile calls all included.
“It’s a misleading back-of-the-envelope exercise from Choice and frankly we think consumers deserve better,” said Bird, adding that when you compare its most popular plans with like-for-like plans on the market, “it’s clear we offer good value and competitive prices”.
“We know value for money is really important for our customers. And we will continue to invest more than any other Australian telco to provide the best network experience, offer plans with generous allowances that meet the changing ways people use their service and include a number of valuable extras customers simply can’t get anywhere else.”
Image credit: Telstra
Having worked for BP in the past, I can safely advise that Choice has a strong reputation for a reason.
lol the hypocrisy is so thick you could cut it with a @cpyne .
The pricing structure of ALL teclo plans are deliberately obtuse and misleading and deliberately difficult to compare to competing plans.
$200 of call mins on Optus is not the same thing as $200 call mins on telstra or ANY other telco. they all charge at different rates. Its like comparing Apples and Oranges….
If there is to be ANY chance of making telco costs fair their needs to be a push for standardised pricing. There has to be a way to compare Optus oranges with Telstra oranges.
Having been a Telstra customer for several years (and having an Optus work mobile for a few of those) I agree with the Telstra reasoning. The network for me works & works well, I don’t notice any major impacts during peak times & the Telstra FTTN connection at home is a huge improvement on the previous ADSL.
I don’t feel the choice comparison is reasonable. Analyzing things on paper will not tell you how the networks actually perform. Sure providers like TPG & Dodo are cheaper, that doesn’t mean they perform at the same levels.
I’m not sure he’s understanding Choice’s point. Or maybe he does and is trying to divert attention. Choice wasnt looking at the exceptions, where there wasnt anything you could compare to, they were comparing plans that had similar plans with other ISP’s.
Its all well and good to spruik the NRL/AFL Season Pass as an added benefit, but that wasnt what was compared. The header picture was the 1 Tb 24 month plan versus a similar TPG plan (unlimited 24 month). $2963 versus $1540 is a pretty obvious comparison.
Does that $2963 plan have other things that add $1423 value?
“Does that $2963 plan have other things that add $1423 value?”
Yep, plenty of free outages this year…
You only have to look at prices posted on Telstra’s website to see they are charging way above the market.
1) Call charges for mobiles need to be standardized across the board so fair comparisons can be made.
2) Telstra’s broadband plans make no mention of NBN “speeds” so any comparison is impossible.
3) Telco’s should be forced to charge on download/upload use not “speed” and network speeds should run at one speed the maximum.
4) Call charges should be ended for NBN services it’s voip, so should be download/upload charged.
Lest we forget this statement made in 2009 by one David Thodey:-
“In November 2009 Telstra chief executive David Thodey promised a “new Telstra” which will be much more responsive to its customers in a bid to improve the telco’s corporate reputation, stating that the new mantra at Telstra would be “customer service, customer service, customer service”, and announcing increases in speed and data allowances for BigPond customers.”
Fast forward 2016, seven network outages, including the H-Bomb all users done on May26/27, 2016.
Telstra Corporation Ltd willingly and knowingly employ shills and propaganda writers to spin complete fiction to hide the inconvenient truth from public view.
One does not have to be a genius to figure which organization is telling the whole truth and the one that is not telling any form of truth, period.
Comments are closed.