Telstra to Also Offer iPhone in Australia

[Lumeswell]

It also must be said that they are the only real Australian mobile company. Three are part owned by Hutchinson Wampoa of Honk Kong (or is it Orange in France, I can't keep up as Three is always changing hands it seems-nobody wants them?) Optus is Singapores Singtel, Vodafone is UK owned, Virgin UK owned.

I guess you could say that used to be true, but are the majority of shareholders in Telstra Australian owned companies? I suspect you would find a lot of big international companies on their share register. I don't know about the others, but Im pretty sure you could buy shares in Singtel Optus if you wanted, but just like Telstra the 'mum and dad investors' don't really have a say in the running of the company.

So for Telstra a chunk of their profit goes overseas just like the others - the benefits of privatisation I guess.

At the end of the day none of them are 'Australian owned', but they are giving jobs to Australians, and their main focus is on developing business in Australia - with the possible exception of Telstra who do have the market sown up here and so must look at overseas investments and opportunities in a bid to grow their business.

Personally, I still wish they didn't get it because of the knitting comment - but if they are going to play at least let them provide competition to keep everyone competitive.

 

[happydude]

oh, aussie's i'm sorry. i lived and worked in australia for 6 months and telstra was the worst experience i've had with any company ever ever ever ever ever. at least you'll have an iphone, sorry it is with telstra. sucky, dudes.

 

[Finiksa]

Virgin UK owned.

Actually Virgin are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Optus, so Singapore.

 

[leigh.munro]

Unlimited data

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

they day that happens is the day im rich..
thats hilarious.

telstra is a privately owned company, they work for the share holders, not the people they sell their services to. they wont give us unlimited and thats why they are so hated as a company here is aus.

I guess you never heard of the Hiptop. Telstra have a unlimited Data Plan (sms / Web Browsing / email / IM) and only $30 a month... Catch is you need to have one of the hiptop handsets... Whats to stop them from offering something similar for the iPhone?

 

[GregA]

telstra is a privately owned company, they work for the share holders, not the people they sell their services to. they wont give us unlimited and thats why they are so hated as a company here is aus.

Every telco here is a privately owned company that works for the share holders.

But Telstra has monopoly power and doesn't want other companies to succeed since that would be at Telstra's expense... It's our perception (right or wrong) that they are unfairly using their power which is largely why we dislike them. I personally will avoiding supporting Telstra since I don't like their business practices.

As for the mobile networks though - Telstra, Optus, & Vodafone compete nicely. Telstra always charges more though, and they keep customers because they are perceived as a premium service, and they do have a slightly better network in the cities. They also have the only 3G network in country areas for now (Optus & Vodafone are launching theirs now, on a frequency the iPhone won't support unfortunately). Anyway - there's no reason Telstra wouldn't do unlimited, but it's more likely we'll see it from Vodafone or Optus.

Note: If I was using the iPhone in country areas I'd HAVE to look at Telstra. My father wants coverage when boating in some unusual areas, so he should consider it.

Three haven't announced and I can't see them get it now. There network is very patchy and has to resort to roaming on other networks, which you have to pay a supplement for if you use data downloads.

Three would be quite appealing if the iPhone can be set to NOT use data when it's roaming on Telstra GSM. That way if you go out of range of Three while in the city it won't check email at that time etc, but you can still get phone calls. When you go back into range a minute later your email will be up and working.

Of course, no data in the country if you did this since it's all Telstra GSM there.

 

[Nermal]

$2 per MB for casual data?! (I don't know whether that applies to iPhones).

 

[funwithstuff]

$2 per MB for casual data?! (I don't know whether that applies to iPhones).

That data pricing applies to most of their phones. It's possible they've done something amazing for the iPhone (and they've done some OKish Blackberry plans) but I'm not holding my breath and they're not saying (yet).

Their other "Next G" (their marketing name for 850MHz 3G) phone plans include $25 calls and $5 data for your $30/month, and that $5 gets you 10MB. Calls are 92c/min + 27c call connect, so you're not getting much for your money. You could get much better call rates on business plans but apparently, according to Telstra, you have to go for a special "iPhone plan".

A $29 cap on Vodafone, for example, has similarly horrible call rates but gives you $130 to spend. For data, Virgin offer 1GB of data for $15 (though with huge excess charges).

Telstra have coverage that nobody else does, though: if you want signal outside of cities they're your best bet, and they're not afraid to charge for it.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

The plans are actually pretty damned aggressive.

I'm shocked - I thought that the plans would start at $79 per month not $30.

It's competitive but like any Telstra "service" there will be plenty of hidden costs.

 

[MAcNIAC]

they wont give us unlimited and thats why they are so hated as a company here is aus.

i also hate them for how MS centric they are (amongst other things)

eg. bigpond music ... oh and have a look at their ads for using 3G for business video conferencing complete with clunky windows laptop and an external usb web cam (circa 1999) and a PCMCIA 3G card WTF (and where's my expresscard 3G solution)

 

[Nermal]

That data pricing applies to most of their phones. It's possible they've done something amazing for the iPhone (and they've done some OKish Blackberry plans) but I'm not holding my breath and they're not saying (yet).

Please don't misinterpret my shock. I'm wondering how Vodafone NZ got away with charging $11.25/MB when you guys get it for $2.

On the other hand, from later this month (due to iPhones?) it drops to 10c/MB over here