Telstra boosts broadband customer service

Telstra today delivered a handful of fixes and updates to its BigPond broadband services, providing faster shaped speeds, transferable email addresses, free customer service calls and up to 15 free mailboxes.

"BigPond customers told us they didn't want to pay for additional BigPond email addresses, which is why we're now making them free of charge," Telstra Consumer executive director BigPond customer feedback Jenny Young said in a statement.

Customers can transfer their email addresses when changing broadband products and returning Telstra consumers can reactivate their old email addresses. Calls made to Telstra customer service and inquiry numbers are also now free of charge and a dedicated customer service team has been set up to help customers manage their communications transition when they move house. No additional costs are associated with the moving home services, although some products carry transfer fees.

Pre-booked weekend appointments have also been opened up for metropolitan and selected regional consumer and small business customers. The weekend call-outs do not accrue additional cost and are priced the same as weekday service call-outs; cost depending on the product or service performed.

In addition, "local customer service experts" will roam regional communities to discuss consumer issues on a face to face level. The representative services are free.

Consumers who exceed their monthly data allocation on BigPond Elite and Ultimate plans will be shaped up to 256kbps — "four times faster than before", Telstra's Young stated.