Telstra doubles bundled data quotas

The nation's biggest telco, Telstra, has more than doubled the amount of data quota it provides under existing bundled plans.

In a statement released today, the telco noted that it had boosted the data quotas of all of its home bundles; its entry level 2GB plan has been boosted to 5GB, its 25GB plan has gone to 100GB, its 100GB plan has gone to 200GB, and its 200GB plan has been boosted to 500GB. The plans come with a Telstra telephone service included, as well as the company's T-Box set-top box.

The complete details of the plans are available online at Telstra's website. They range from $89 to $159 in price per month, on a 24-month contract with a $35 upfront fee.

Telstra customers who have a 13-digit account number are able to upgrade to the new bundle for free, although they have to sign on for a new contract term. It remains unclear, however, how the process will work for those with one of the old-style account numbers, believed to be a small percentage of customers still on Telstra's legacy billing platform. Telstra is clarifying the situation with respect to those cases.

The news still, however, leaves Telstra without a plan featuring a terabyte of included quota, despite the fact that most of Australia's large internet service providers launched such plans in late 2010.

A number of other providers also offer "unlimited" quota plans. Telstra's plans are formally unlimited, as users will have their speed capped rather than pay for excess quota usage, but a number of other providers don't feature the same speed cap when it comes to unlimited plans.