Going on holiday soon? While Vodafone took the lead on international mobile bill shock solutions, joined by Optus shortly thereafter, Telstra is finally chiming in with some relief of its own.
The solution is coming in the form of Telstra “Travel Passes,” options for travellers planning to go away for just a few days or even a solid month, with Telstra overseas access provided for just a fraction of what it would normally cost.
The passes will be available for two zones, with Zone 1 applying to New Zealand, Thailand, and Indonesia (including Bali), while Zone 2 will deal with the UK, USA, Singapore, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and some of Europe’s popular travel destinations, including Ireland, Italy, Greece, Netherland, Spain, and Sweden, among others.
Each zone will have passes applicable for three days, seven days, 14 days, or 30 days, and essentially, the Zone 2 pricing will be double what the Zone 1 pricing is.
For instance, the three and seven day passes for Zone 1 will cost $15 and $30 respectively, while Zone 2 pricing for the same passes will come in at $30 and $70, respectively.
As for what the passes include, that is pretty much the same across the board, except until you hit the data amounts. You’ll find all the passes include unlimited calls to and from standard numbers, and unlimited SMS, with data provided in a daily allowance.
This allowance starts at 150MB for the three day pass, but increases dramatically the larger the pass. For instance, you’ll find 350MB daily allowance on a seven day pass, 700MB on a two week pass, and 1.5GB daily allowance on the full month (30 days).
“Our customers told us that they wanted better value international roaming options and pricing that is easier to understand. We’ve acted on this feedback by introducing new Travel Passes that take the guess work out of using a Telstra mobile overseas,” said Scott McGibbony, Director of Telstra Mobile.
“With Telstra’s International Roaming Travel Passes, our customers can call, text and share their adventures with friends and family back home and not worry about an unexpected bill.”
Telstra has sent word that the Travel Passes are now in effect, but will only apply to post-paid consumer and small business accounts, though we are checking when this is coming to pre-paid customers tired of paying hefty costs for taking a trip, so stay tuned.
