Prepaid Mobile Review - Telstra Prepaid Cap+ 2016

Prepaid Mobile Review - Telstra Prepaid Cap+

Telstra is by far Australia's biggest mobile phone carrier. This covers both post paid mobile plans as well as prepaid mobile plans. Over the past few years however the range of prepaid mobile options made available by Telstra has become rather stale.

Optus on the other hand have invested considerably in new product development and even launched their unlimited prepaid offer in late 2010 Optus Dollar Days. What all of this has meant is that Telstra is no longer is losing market share and their lack of product variety is contributing to this.

Telstra Prepaid Cap+ 2016

Telstra has never been the cheapest in Australia. Much of their market share is on the back of being the biggest carrier as well as having the best reception. So when they launched their new Prepaid Cap+ plans, I wasn't expecting the best in value but I was genuinely surprised by the fact that data was a key piece of the value on offer.

In late October, Telstra launched their Prepaid Cap+ offer. The offer includes a combination of basic credit (to the value that you recharge), bonus credit and a data allowance. I have long been a supporter of prepaid mobile plans which offer a data allowance.

The range of plans start at $30 and increase to $100:

- $30 Cap - $30 call credit + $170 bonus credit + 50MB data

- $40 Cap - $40 call credit + $260 bonus credit + 150MB data

- $60 Cap - $60 call credit + $440 bonus credit + 300MB data

- $100 Cap - $100 call credit + $900 bonus credit + 500MB data

Bonus credit/data is for personal use only and excludes calls/SMS to satellite numbers, premium numbers (eg. 1900 numbers), operator assisted and info calls (eg. most calls to 1200 numbers), content charges (inc 3rd party charges), MessageBank, diverted calls and use while overseas.

Telstra Prepaid Cap+ 2016

Credits last for only 30 days, which is standard for cap style plans. Call rates are 89c per min with a flagfall of 39c and text rates are 29c. So a 3 minute call will set you back $3.06. On the $30 Cap with $200 credit this comes to 65 calls. On the top plan with $1000 credit it equates to 326 calls per month. Telstra's superior reception across rural Australia and the inclusion of data in each cap, should make these plans a popular choice.

Following on from the launch of the Prepaid Cap+ plans, Telstra has now Prepaid Weekend+ Plan. The new prepaid offer gives you two recharge options $50 or $60. In addition to the credit that you can use during the week you also get 100MB of data + FREE weekend talk and text. So you get the $50 or $60 credit for during the week and during the weekend you can make unlimited calls and text to anyone in Australia. Great if you mainly use your phone during the wild weekend. It sounds a little like the first Optus contract I signed up to 15 years ago, free weekend calls.

Telstra Prepaid Cap+ 2016

Are these new plans enough? At a minimum they now give customers a few more options and the unlimited weekend offer gives those who mainly use their phones over the weekend a great alternative to the many other offers in the market place.

In the longer term they need to continue to look at unique ways to differentiate their product offering and certainly data is one way of doing this. Combined with their superior reception, a great data plan could be a big winner with the growing popularity of smart phones.

Telstra Prepaid Cap+ 2016

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