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Telstra flags new mobile and broadband plans, streaming app

In an effort to offer 'unrivalled' access to streaming services content, Telstra is throwing in subscriptions and unmetered offers for mobile and broadband customers, as well as a new app.
Written by Corinne Reichert, Contributor

Telstra will be unveiling new mobile and home broadband plans next Tuesday, with the telecommunications company focusing on streaming subscription inclusions and unmetered data on certain plans, as well as a new app to manage access to streaming services.

"On Tuesday, we're announcing a refresh of our mobile plans, and media is going to be a really critical part of the new plan refresh," said Michael Simpson, executive director of Telstra Mobile.

Calling them the "three differentiators" for being on the Telstra network, Simpson said mobile customers on post-paid plans of AU$95 and above and BYO device plans of AU$70 and above will be given free three-month access to subscription video on demand (SVOD) providers Netflix, Stan, and Presto; all post-paid and prepaid mobile customers will have unmetered access to Apple Music, as well as a six-month Apple Music subscription; and mobile and broadband customers will have free and unmetered access to an entire season pass for both NRL and AFL.

Claiming that video streaming across mobile is growing by over 30 percent each year, Telstra said sports content in particular is causing spikes in data usage. For instance, customers streaming the men's Olympic Games basketball match between Australia and the United States took up a quarter of all usage on Telstra's mobile network at the time when it was broadcast live.

Telstra will also be launching a new app on Tuesday called Telstra TV+, which simplifies and aggregates all content offerings across a search engine. Searches for content will display results from Stan, Presto, Apple Music, BigPond Movies, and the telco's own sports offerings including Netball, AFL, and NRL.

For now, Netflix is unavailable to be added to the Telstra TV+ streaming search engine due to licensing issues.

Telstra said the app, which was developed in-house, will "make it easier for customers to discover the full range of entertainment options available to them as part of their plan".

"The other thing that we've been noticing with customers is that they want to have an easy way to see what the plan inclusions are; we're actually offering so much content now that we don't want them to be confused," executive director of Telstra Media Michele Garra told media on Thursday morning.

"So we've come up with a solution that we think is really going to help them, and also make it really fun for you to get into these SVOD offers. We're calling it Telstra TV+, and it's an app which you just load on your mobile phone, and it really easily surfaces all of the offers on SVODs [Presto and Stan], our BigPond Movies service ... and then it's got AFL and NRL, and it's also got Apple Music.

"You can go in here and search for more than 25,000 movies and TV shows, and it takes you straight to them."

The app automatically recognises an individual user's mobile plan and inclusions, and provides offers based on these. It also works alongside a customer's Telstra TV login.

"One of the cool things is that it actually works with your Telstra TV," Garra added.

"We've shipped more than 300,000 Telstra TVs to market now, and what you're able to do is use [the app] as a remote control. So you can use your mobile phone ... and I can resume playing from where I left off the night before on my Telstra TV; it works interoperably with my Telstra TV, recognises my subscription and where I'm at in any of the subscription services."

Telstra will reveal more details of its new broadband and mobile plans and inclusions on Tuesday, with the app also slated to go live at this time.

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