It’s not often that Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are on exactly the same page, but right now they share one message for Australian customers: your mobile plan is about to cost more.
Telstra is lifting most postpaid mobile plan prices by $4 a month and prepaid plans by $5 per recharge from 5 May. The changes will push its entry-level postpaid plan to $74 a month for 50GB, making it $14 more expensive than Optus’s equivalent with 10GB less data. It’s also the second time in under a year that Australia’s largest telco has bumped up its prices, and the company is simultaneously closing its cheapest Starter plan to new sign-ups.
Optus is following Telstra’s lead with a $5 per month increase on all postpaid plans from 18 May, though extra data is being added to soften the blow. That means Optus’s cheapest postpaid option will sit at $60 a month with 60GB. Prepaid plans are not going up this time around.
Vodafone’s prepaid plans have already started rising as of 15 April, with most going up by $5 per recharge. Some of its longer-expiry plans are climbing by as much as $30. Postpaid Vodafone plan changes haven’t been confirmed yet, but industry watchers expect those increases won’t be far behind.
The timing is hard to ignore. The price hikes arrive just weeks after Telstra announced a $1.21 billion profit. Consumer advocate ACCAN has pushed back strongly, with its CEO Carol Bennett arguing that customers shouldn’t be shouldering cost increases that outstrip both inflation and community expectations during a cost-of-living crunch. Current inflation sits at 3.7 per cent, well below the percentage jumps being applied to many of these plans.
All three telcos are pointing to the same justification: ongoing investment in network performance, 5G expansion and security. Telstra says the changes help fund mobile network infrastructure and features like satellite-to-mobile messaging and scam call protections. Optus says it’s investing in coverage, speed and resilience. Vodafone hasn’t publicly explained its increases.
For customers who feel stung, there is a silver lining. Smaller providers known as Mate or MVNOs use the same major networks but typically charge far less, and they aren’t locked into these price hikes. Telstra has confirmed that MVNOs set their own pricing and are not directly affected. Providers like Belong, Boost Mobile, Aldi Mobile and Amaysim offer plans on the same towers, often with identical coverage in metro areas, for significantly less each month. Shopping around might be the most practical response to what’s becoming an annual tradition of telco price creep.
