High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Internet

Telstra and Optus have both released aggressive data plans for the Apple iPad. Compared with the cost of data for mobile phone plans the iPad plans are roughly half the price. For example 2GB of data costs $20 for the iPad. In comparison, Telstra offer 1GB of data for $39 on a mobile phone plan.

This is obviously good news for consumers and may spark further price wars for data mobile data downloads. Vodafone and 3 Mobile will be revealing their iPad Internet plans shortly.

The iPad can’t be use to make calls so the plans only have a data component, no voice component. Additionally the iPad SIM card cannot be used in other devices so consumers signing up for an iPad product will be counted as new subscribers rather than existing customers. Gartner research director Robin Simpson offered this as one explanation for the very aggressive pricing of which he said he was surprised and mystified.

With the competitive plans the iPad is cheaper to use than the smallest iPhone. The iPad can be bought unlocked from mobicity for $879.

Telstra has announced new wireless broadband plans for small to medium businesses in a similar vein to the changes in consumer wireless broadband plans announced last week.

From January 21st small businesses will have access to double the data allowance on some plans and access to casual mobile broadband deals with no contract. Telstra will also introduce a higher usage plan of 120GB.

One of the welcome changes to the consumer plans was that no excess charges would be levied. However, businesses will still incur charges of 5c per megabyte for excess usage on plans over 9GB per month. This is reduced quite a bit from the existing rate of 25c per megabyte excess usage.

Telstra also announced that they will partner with Acer to offer bundled laptop and mobile broadband deals from February.

Telstra have announced new wireless broadband plans available from 18th January. The plans offer more data for cheaper prices and new levels of data to give more flexibility. Also no additional usage will be charged on any of the plans.

Standard monthly costs will be $39.95 for 1GB, $49.95 for 2GB, $79.95 for 6GB and $119.95 for 10GB. Discounts of $10 per month will apply to all plans on 24 month plans with a Telstra home phone and $20 per month discount with a home phone plus one other Telstra service.

The plans are more expensive than the same data allowance from other main providers. For example, 3 Mobile offer 6GB per month for $39 compared with Telstra’s $79.95. However, the Telstra Next G network is by far the most extensive. The plans will appeal to people within Next G coverage areas and outside the coverage from other networks.

If you use wireless broadband on Telstra’s Next G network with an iPhone it’s not straightforward to tether the iPhone to a laptop and use it as a wireless broadband modem. Telstra came under some criticism from their customers over this and said last July that the fault lay with Apple rather than themselves in that Apple had disabled the tethering functionality.

Tethering is a feature that is very much in demand and 3 Mobile and Vodafone both allow iPhone data tethering free of charge. Optus also allow iPhone tethering for a fee. However it looks like Telstra have started listening to their customers and they have again announced that they are working with Apple to enable Next G tethering with the iPhone.

No dates have been announced but Telstra CEO, David Thodey, has said that they are ““listening to our customers on this issue”.

It’s not easy to get hold of an iPhone 3G S at the moment. It was predicted that the new iPhone would sell out very quickly and in fact 3 Mobile almost sold out on the day of the launch a couple of weeks ago.

Now, the situation is that the telcos offerings the iPhone 3GS have no stock available. Telstra has blamed the “global shortage of iPhone models”. It looks like it will be a couple of weeks before new shipments arrive for Australian carriers. Apple have said that they can’t keep up with the demand for the iPhone 3Gs and are working to address the current shortfall.

The iPhone 3Gs can be purchased directly from Apple at a cost of $879 for the 16GB model and $1040 for 32GB.

Telstra will offer the iPhone on July 11th along with Optus and Vodafone. Some pricing details have been announced unlike the silence from the other two carriers. However it doesn’t give the complete picture as it’s still unknown how much data and at what price will be included in the plans.

What we know so far is that the Telstra Next G iPhone plans will start at $30 per month if you pay an up front cost for the iPhone itself, $279 for the 8GB model and $399 for the 16GB model. There are also plans with no up front costs, $80 per month with the 8GB model and from $100 per month for the 16GM model. The contract period for all these plans is 24 months.

The big question is how much data is included on these plans. The iPhone is an Internet device not just a phone so it’s pointless being on a plan which is prohibitively expensive with any reasonable data usage. Telstra’s existing Next G phone plans allow for 5MB of data per month at $2 per MB which doesn’t make sense for the iPhone. So it remains to be seen what the complete pricing picture looks like.

The data allowance will be a major deciding factor when it comes to choosing a mobile provider for the iPhone especially for those in the cities who will have a choice. It’s still the case that Telstra can demand high prices given it’s superior coverage and speed outside of the major metropolitan areas.