Telstra keeps wireless excess charges for business

Can put staff on consumer plans for ‘unlimited' internet.

Telstra has stopped short of scrapping wireless excess use charges for its business customers, cutting excess costs on high-end plans to five cents a megabyte.

A spokesman for the telco said that although businesses wanted unlimited wireless broadband, they didn't want to be throttled to get it.

But businesses could put their staff on consumer plans to avoid excess charges, he said.

"Some already do. We want them to be able to choose," the spokesman said.

"Most businesses don't want throttling, though, because while they're working away on something important they don't want to be hit with throttling messages."

The new five cent a megabyte charge applied only to plans that traffic more than 9GB a month.

Excess costs on these plans were previously charged at 25 cents a megabyte. The cuts will reduce excess use costs per gigabyte on these plans from $256 to $51.20.

The 9GB plan was $99 a month with no contract or $89 a month over two years, which entitled the user to a subsidised modem.

The new cost was $20 a month less than the old plan.

It was a similar story on other high-end business plans with most enjoying a 5 GB to 10 GB monthly quota boost in the revamp.

Users of Telstra's biggest wireless plan - the $600, 100GB Amonth giant - will get an extra 20 GB a month allowance.

Excess use charges dropped gradually on lower-end plans, which also benefited from a rise in monthly quotas.

The only exceptions were the $5 (5 MB), $10 (150 MB) and $29 ($300 MB) plans, which went unchanged. The first two carry higher excess charges of $1 and 50c per MV respectively.

The incumbent will also introduce a casual plan option across its range that allows business users to join Telstra without a contract.

Telstra also announced bundles of an Acer laptop and Telstra wireless broadband.

The new plans came less than a week after Telstra revised its consumer wireless broadband plans.