Telstra has dropped the pricing of its 3G wireless service, and has reduced the number of plans considerably.

To start with, Telstra has made 400MB the new lowest plan, removing the 200MB plans from its line-up, and has removed the speed crippled 256Kbps plans. It has also introduced a mammoth 10GB plan, costing $129.95/month.

Perhaps responding to increased pressure from competitors, prices for most plans have dropped between $10-$20/month. But the prices are still astronomical compared to other providers such as 3 and Vodafone.

The most interesting change though is that Telstra no longer arbitrarily prices its so-called "mobile" plans at a higher rate, even though it was exactly the same service as the "modem" plans.

But to do this, it has actually raised the excess usage charge to 25c/MB ($250/GB) from the previous 15c/MB ($150/GB) used for modem plans.

"New customers with multiple Telstra services can receive a discount of 12 months half price off their wireless broadband access", said BigPond MD Justin Milne. "When you consider our superior speed and coverage with our wireless broadband plus all the benefits BigPond provides such as access to unmetered entertainment like news, music, movies, sport and games, the choice is simple and it's why customers are connecting with BigPond."

Links:

• Telstra Media Release  (Telstra, 22 Aug 2008)