If you’re reliant on a Telstra mobile broadband dongle or connection to keep you connected, you’re about to get more data just like that.
Whether you’re working from home with the family, sitting in a private office, or trying to work remotely because you have no choice, there’s a good chance broadband data is a slight concern at the back of your mind.
Depending on who your connection is with, there’s a possibility it’s been increased over the past few weeks, as more people go online thanks to the fact that so many of us are working from home or sitting there with our regular lives on hold. Data increases are a good thing, and help to alleviate the concern that overage brings in, which can bring in added cost, though in recent years has been moved to something more like speed shaping instead of increased cost.
Speed shaping isn’t a fantastic outcome, that said, but in a question of cost versus comfort, we suspect most people would take the minor discomfort of a slower speed over a dollar per megabyte or gigabyte, which can add up quickly.
That makes the data allowance you’re set to so crucial for so many, because the longer it takes you to hit those data limits, the further it will be between when you’re operating at fast speeds and are reduced.
If you’re on a fixed wired home broadband connection, then hopefully your internet service provider has upgraded the bandwidth to account for the strange times we find ourselves in, possibly to an unlimited connection.
Mobile broadband likely haven’t seen the same upgrade, as unlimited mobile is typically shaped, though again depending on your telco, you may have seen a temporary boost in downloads to accomodate the strange times that we’re in.
But this week, Telstra is looking to improve things for its mobile broadband customers, offering double data inside the country for some of its mobile broadband plans, with a little more bandwidth overall.
It means whether you’re on Telstra’s small data plan, medium data plan, or large data plan, you’re about to get more data for your mobile broadband connection at no cost, increasing the small from 10GB to 20GB, the medium from 50GB to 60GB, and doubling the large from 100GB to a staggering 200GB, all while retaining the $25, $50, and $75 monthly plan costs comparatively. The increases are apparently not temporarily, at least as far we as know, but we have asked, and can be used alongside Telstra’s 25GB extra boost that it rolled out for customers during these times.
Once you go beyond those new limits, Telstra will put customers on a shaped speed until the next month, with a maximum of 1.5Mbps used, much like it does with its mobile connections, meaning once you hit the 20GB, 60GB, and 200GB on the new allowances, it’s back to 1.5Mbps downloads for you. Telstra hasn’t said exactly what the upload speed is — we’ve asked — but if it maxes out at 1.5Mbps as well, expect it to make a dent on those Zoom video conferences with lower bandwidth performance.
At least Telstra’s data will hopefully mean you don’t hit the speed shaping until a little later, which goes into place now for current customers.
